The End
by elemental helper
Summary: Seven cats are looking for a cure for a mutated disease that have struck their clans, but things aren t as they seem. A stolen land, a hundred year old loner, and a prophecy like no other. R&R please.
1. alligences

Desertclan

Leader: Greycloud- grey tom with black strips and blue eyes

Deputy: Autumnsong- she cat with fur dappled many shades of brown ginger and yellow with green eyes

Medicine cat: Duskclaw- black she cat with white paws

Apprentice: Gingerpaw- dark ginger she cat with cream colored splotches, has warm honey colored eyes

Warriors:

Cloudpelt: grey she cat with green eyes

Envyfur: green tinted black fur

Spikefur: sandy colored tom with fur that sticks out no matter what and amber eyes

Rustyfoot: she cat with reddish ginger fur and yellow eyes

Batshadow: black tom with golden eyes

Silverbreeze: silver she cat, formerly of Dayclan

Redmane: reddish tabby tom with thick fur around his shoulders

Falconswoop: tabby tom with amber eyes

Forestwind: light grey tabby with green eyes

Flufur: tabby she cat with green eyes

Nightcrow: black she cat with amber eyes

Bramblefire: muscular dark brown tabby tom with amber eyes

Reedclaw: black tom with amber eyes

Silverlight: silver she cat with blue eyes

Wildeyes: white she cat with one green eye and one blue

Smokefang: grey tabby tom with yellow eyes

Blazeclaw: russet male with black 'socks' and tail tip with amber eyes

Thunderfire: golden, ginger, and white tom with white paws and black circles around his eyes and claws

Apprentices:

Snowpaw: snow white she cat with green eyes, apprentice to Falconswoop

Hailpaw: snow white she cat with grey paws and green eyes, apprentice to Flufur

Applepaw: tortishell tom with green eyes, apprentice to Cloudpelt

Flightpaw: swift grey tabby she cat with white paws, apprentice to Nightcrow

Leafpaw: brown tabby tom with green eyes, apprentice to Foxpool

Mothpaw: golden furred she cat with dark green eyes, apprentice to Blazeclaw

Elders:

Bluestreak: old blue she cat with blue eyes.

Queens:

Honeyeyes: cream pelted she cat with honey colored eyes

**Kits: Creamkit, Eclipsekit, Moonkit, Streamkit, Heatherkit**

Hawkfire: light brown she cat with a red tail and blue eyes

**Kits: Squirrelkit and Ravenkit**

Foxpool: russet furred she cat with a white underbelly and blue eyes

**Kits: Wolfkit, Streamkit, and Copperkit**

Goldenflower: golden she cat with blue eyes

**Kits: Firekit and Blizzardkit **

**Nightclan**:

Leader: Nightcloud- black she cat with light blue eyes

Deputy: Thorneyes: big brown she cat with a large scar running over her nose

Medicine cat: Weaselnose-brown tom with yellow eyes

**Apprentice- Runningpaw: dark brown tom with amber eyes**

Warriors:

Addertail: tom with dark grey fur and amber eyes, with a very long thin tail

Blackhawk: tom with pitch black fur and bright amber eyes

Raventail: black tom with golden eyes

Rabbitleap: dark brown tom with grey ears

Sandfire: white tom with ginger splotches on his side and blue (almost white) eyes

Firestorm: red-brown tom with amber eyes

Snowfeather: pure white she cat with blue eyes

Apprentices:

Mousepaw: pure white tom with eerie blue eyes, apprentice to Snowfeather

Tigerpaw: black tom with brown stripes and blue eyes, apprentice to Raventail

Hawkpaw: brown tom with brown stripes and blue eyes, apprentice to Thorneyes

Birdpaw: pure white she cat with dark blue eyes, apprentice to Sandfire

Kestrelpaw: dark brown tabby tom, long furred, a long thin tail that ends in a tuft, apprentice to Addertail

Shadowpaw: black she cat with blue eyes, apprentice to Firestorm

Queens:

Fawnflight: light brown she cat with small flecks and amber eyes

**Kits: Greykit, Oakkit, Forestkit**

Poppyfoot: brown she cat with white paws

**Kits: Sandkit, Leopardkit, and Heatherkit **

Elders:

Heatherfall: light brown she cat with amber eyes, lost her foot do to a badger

Whitebelly: badly scared black tom with a white belly, blind and deaf

Dayclan: (this was a first come first serve)

Leader: Cricketcloud- grey and white tabby she cat with long fur and green eyes

Deputy: Vineheart- dark brown tom with green eyes

Medicine cat: Morningdove: tan she cat with small yellow eyes

Warriors:

Featherpelt: beautiful grey she cat with amber eyes

Stormpelt: dark grey tom

Heatherflower: black she cat with a white chest and heather eyes

Rainstorm: grey tom with icy blue eyes, in the rain his pelt darkens

Silverglow: pretty silverfish blue she cat with dazzling blue eyes

Bladeclaw: brown tabby with darker brown stripes, sharp claws, and honest golden eyes

Sunstar: tall muscular golden tom and bright amber eyes

Fluffyfur: long haired grey she cat with cold grey eyes

Redwhisker: dark ginger-and-black tom

Bunnytail: black she cat

Sunnyfur: light ginger she cat

Finchsong: scary looking dark cream she cat

Firefur: once pretty firey colored she cat with a slightly grey muzzle due to aging

Oakfall: dark grey tabby tom

Apprentices:

Whitepaw: light brown tabby tom with white patches and yellow eyes, apprentice to Sunnyfur

Bluepaw: blue she cat that doesn`t like to train, apprentice to Bladeclaw

Frozenpaw: white tom with blue eyes, apprentice to Cricketcloud

Gingerpaw: ginger colored she cat with green eyes and long fur, apprentice to Finchsong

Hawkpaw: she cat with a pelt in a hawk pattern, apprentice to Oakfall

Violetpaw: brown she cat with violet eyes, apprentice to Heatherfeather

Poppypaw: black she cat with green eyes, apprentice of Fluffyfur

Dawnpaw: light brown she cat with blue eyes, apprentice to Redwhisker

Riverpaw: tortishell she cat with blue eyes, apprentice to Firefur

Queens:

Blossomtail: black and white she cat with blue eyes

Lilyfur: white and grey she cat, has a long thin tail and green eyes

**Kits: Brightkit, Skykit, Greykit**

Smokeclan

Leader: Mistycloud- grayish blue female with blue eyes

Deputy: Frozenstar- white tom with light grey smudges and green eyes

Medicine cat: Silentecho- slick black tom with silver streaks and light blue eyes, doesn`t speak much do to a injury as a kit

**Apprentice: Featherbreeze- silver tabby she cat with green eyes**

Warriors:

Starflower: slender black and white she cat with green eyes and a white spot on her black left shoulder

Ashflight: grey and white tabby she cat

Snowwhisker: white tom with black whiskers

Mossflower: grey tabby she cat with amber eyes

Hollowface: light brown tom with a dark brown mask around his face

Nightfire: black tom with orange eyes the color of flames

Apprentices:

Oakpaw: butter cream colored tom with dark brown eyes, apprentice to Ashflight

Icepaw: small white she cat, apprentice to Nightfire

Queens:

Deertail: a little brown she cat with a dark brown stripe down the middle of her back

**Kits: Yarrowkit, Fireflykit, and Firekit**

Burninggrass: greenish she cat with bright yellow eyes

**Kits: Snowkit, Willowkit, and Flamekit**

Elders:

Foxfoot: fox colored tom with a scar over his left eye and a bushy tail

Applepelt: she cat with a fox red colored pelt

**Cats outside the clans**:

Sky-beyond-the-horizon: yellow tabby tom

Falcon: brown and white she cat

Eagle: black tom with a white head and tail

Wedge and Hedge: twin white and silver she cat and tom

Bird: small pale tom

Rippling-water-of-the-healing-stream: silver she cat

**Other animals**:

Delta: rhino calf that was down on her luck

*****


	2. beginings

*****

Greycloud woke up just as the desert sun was peaking over the horizon, it was winter and the air had a tiny smell of cold. It was odd, it must have been three moons since Nightclan and Smokeclan had tried to raid on Desertclan territory, and that had everyone on edge. But who Greycloud was most concern about attacking was Dayclan, they hardly did but when Cricketcloud decided to attack, the blow was hard and long.

"Greycloud… hey are you awake?" A small voice asked him, the leader turned around to see a pair of icy blue eyes, accompanied by a small black body.

"What can I do for you Ravenkit?" Greycloud asked with a sigh. "You shouldn`t be alone at this time of day, the owls are still out." He lectured, yawning widely.

"I was wondering when me and Squirrelkit can become apprentices." The kit asked padding up to the grey tom.

"Not till another moon, now go back to Hawkfire, she`ll be worried if she wakes up and you aren`t there." He said, Hawkfire was very protective of her kits.

"Do I have to go alone?" The kit asked with large pleading eyes.

Greycloud sighed, "Come along then."He said, nudging the kit out of his den

Desertclan was located right on the edge of a desert, and the camp itself was a large rock mound.

On the west side Smokeclan lived on a moor, where they practiced the art of wind and speed. To their north was the fable Nightclan, whose territory was dirt spotted along with large clusters of trees, ruled by Nightcloud, who hated every other clan with burning fury. Then to the east were the less active Dayclan, who lived by a Divide, which is two large water ways connecting. They were a very well fed clan and they would give their lives to defend their plentiful territory.

*****

"I wonder what Nightclan is planning…" Autumnsong muttered to Greycloud.

The old tom gave a slight chuckle, "Come now, just because they aren`t attacking doesn`t mean that they are planning anything." He told his deputy surly.

"Your right, Smokeclan must be planning something…" She stated in dry humor.

"Don`t worry, and I believe that you left out Dayclan. Don`t you think that they would put up a fight?" Greycloud asked.

"Well of course I believe that they`d fight, but have they ever seen them fight in winter?" Autumnsong replied casually. Greycloud nodded in agreement, only once had he ever seen them fight at this season, and that was when they were starved. "I guess that you can say I`m bored." She sighed.

Just as Greycloud was about to reply a yowl cut through the desert side and the leader leapt to his paws. "It seems that you`ve gotten your wish Autumnsong." He meowed, watching as Nightclan medicine cat, Weaselnose, and the warrior Addertail, they were accompanied by the dawn patrol.

"Greycloud, we found these two inside of our territory." Envyfur declared harshly. "What should we do to them as punishment?" He asked.

"Before we jump to conclusions let`s see what they were doing." Greycloud replied. "Because I hardly doubt that a medicine cat would led a raid or steal prey."

"Well, what were you doing?" Greycloud asked the Nightclan cats.

"We don`t have to tell _you_ anything." Addertail spat, Weaselnose put his tail up to silence the younger warrior.

"Go on." The leader prodded.

"I had to collect some Metallic-dust." The medicine cat confessed. Metallic-dust was a very valuable dust that only grew on Desertclan territory, it cured Blood-cough, and Blood-cough was a disease that plagued the clans at least once every five years.

"Alright, Duskclaw, take Batshadow and escort these cats to the Metallic-dust please." He asked the medicine cat who was standing in front of her rock den.

"Yes Greycloud." She answered. "But allow Gingerpaw to go instead of me." Greycloud nodded. The Desertclan medicine cat was strange in many ways, she hardly talked to anyone except who she knew well and she had the tendency of taking midnight strolls.

"But Greycloud, they`ve trespassed, they should be punished." A voice hissed from the direction of the warriors den. Greycloud turned around to see the black tom named Reedclaw.

"Reedclaw, I will not deny any clan the need of herbs." Greycloud hissed back, "and do not defy me again." Reedclaw held the leaders icy blue stare with his own amber eyes for a minute before stepping back into the warriors den angrily

*****

"So is that why Nightclan hasn`t attacked for so long… they`ve been suffering from Blood-cough?" Gingerpaw asked her mentor thoughtfully.

"Yes, and what does Blood-cough do?" Duskclaw asked, sorting through her plentiful supply of herbs.

"It`s an infection of the blood system that spreads from cat to cat through touch, and it makes you cough up blood." She recited.

"Tell me about the cures history."

"The cure was found by Sorrowwillow when she saw a metallic dust and realized that infection was the opposite metal attraction and decided that the next Blood-cough she would try getting a cat to eat it and see what would happen. The dust spread through the body of the cat… oh! I forget what the first cat that used it was called!" Gingerpaw panicked, losing all self-confidence.

"It`s all right, and it was Soaringhawk." Duskclaw assured, "Carry on."

"Ok, then… um… she discovered that the dust melted in the cats body… what, oh-no, that`s not right!" Gingerpaw struggled.

"Sorrowwillow discovered that the dust had a magnetic pull on the affection and brought it to itself. It then evaporated itself with the diseases." Duskclaw explained with a sigh. Her apprentice tried very hard but she had no confidence whatsoever.

"Oh, it`s so hard to remember." Gingerpaw complained sadly.

"As I said before, it`s quite all right, can you please check on the mud supply?" She comforted without even looking up from her work. Gingerpaw nodded and walked to the back room where the mud pit was.

The mud pit was a large pit of mud that was kept fresh by a underwater spring. If the water stopped flowing under it, it meant either a bad omen or a drought was on the way. But today, Gingerpaw concluded, it was flowing fine and the mud was bubbling as strongly as ever.

*****

Heatherkit backed away from the pretend battle, it wasn`t that she didn`t want to play, it was just that she didn`t feel right. Her stomach hurt really badly after Eclipsekit had accidently kicked her and she couldn`t shake the feeling off. _'I should tell my mom_.' She thought to herself, but her mother would make a fuss and make her embarrassed, and she didn`t want that.

"Hey Heatherkit, come on!" Moonkit panted to his sister just before Streamkit knocked her over. With a sigh Heatherkit walked painfully back into the battle to easily be stepped on by Creamkit. She gasped in agonizing pain at her sisters weight and she felt very cold and black suddenly, she couldn`t move.

"Heatherkit, Heatherkit, wake up!" Creamkit shouted, desperately nudging her sister. "Come on get up." She laughed, not realizing the horrible state her sister was in. Moonkit and Streamkit padded up to their fallen sister calling her name, yet she didn`t rise.

Eclipsekit felt panic creep up into his throat, this wasn`t right, Heatherkit wouldn`t try to pull such a prank on her siblings. "MOM!" He shouted, running towards Honeyeyes, who was laying lazily by the queen`s rock den.

"What is it Eclipsekit?"She asked, suddenly worried at her kits horrid expression.

"It`s Heatherkit, she won`t wake up!"


	3. crossing the border

*Well Helper, it seems that I wrote the first part fine without your help!*

*Yeah, but I`m writing the next part!*

*****

Duskclaw looked down sadly at the small kit in front of her, with each cough blood came up, her eyes were rolling up in her head and she was shaking horribly. "I`m guessing that this is Blood-cough?" Gingerpaw asked, dropping the soaked bundle of moss at her mentor`s paws, Gingerpaw had never seen a Blood-cough academic before.

"Yes and no, I believe that her stomach has also ruptured." She sighed sadly.

"Wouldn`t that cause her a lot of pain, surely she would have told Honeyeyes if that happened." Gingerpaw reasoned thoughtfully.

Duskclaw shook her head, "Not necessarily, it may have been only a small hole in her stomach, and it is possible that this isn`t Blood-cough." She watched as the kit coughed again, blood bubbling at the side of her mouth. "We better start giving every cat in the clan Metallic-dust, who knows who she touched." Duskclaw told her apprentice.

"What about her stomach?" Gingerpaw asked worriedly.

"I have to get Water lily, but that means I have to go to Dayclan, so can you get Bluestreak to watch over her?" Duskclaw asked. Bluestreak had been the old medicine cat before her age stopped her from keeping up with the needs of the clan, she was never content after her retirement and the chance to get back into the medicine den would joy her.

"Will Greycloud allow it, what if he doesn`t?" Her ginger apprentice fretted.

Duskclaw rolled her eyes dramatically and turned to face her apprentice, "Quit worrying, it`s not good for your health!"

*****

"You do realize that Dayclan may be hostile to you?" Greycloud asked reasonably.

"Yes."

"Do you realize that it is very dangerous?"

"Yes."

"Do you…"

"Greycloud, we could stand here playing this game all day, but right now I have a patient that needs Water-lily now!" Duskclaw snarled angrily.

"Fine, but take two warriors with you." Duskclaw shot Greycloud a dirty look as he said that, "Just to be safe of course." He added quickly. "Redmane and Envyfur please escort Duskclaw to Dayclan." Greycloud shouted to the two warriors.

"_What?"_ She hissed. Greycloud realized his wrong instantly, Envyfur and Duskclaw had a long history of hating each other with a fury as large as the ocean.

"Call this social bonding." Greycloud joked walking away quickly from the spitting she cat.

*****

Cloudpelt felt her heart picking up, she shouldn`t be doing this, if her clan mates found out… she could hear the names they would call her, traitor, idiot, piece of mouse dung, and more. But she couldn't help it, she loved him, she loved a Nightclan warrior and that was all there was to it.

Raventail was everything she ever wanted, brave, strong, kind. She tried not to love him at first, but then she started meeting him secretly and something strong had grown inside her, nobody could have held it back.

Silverbreeze had loved like this before; she was in love with such a passion that she had left Dayclan to be with Batshadow. She had left her mother and brother and everything she knew to be with him. Now, everyone expected that she would soon carry his kits.

Could Cloudpelt do that, leave everything for one? She wasn`t sure, but she really did love Raventail. Now, lying beside him, everything seemed right in place, if only this could last.

*****

Duskclaw stalked madly behind Redmane and Envyfur. She had nothing against Redmane, except he was a bit ambitious; who she really hated was Envyfur. Envyfur was loyal enough to Desertclan and Greycloud, but he was harsh to any other cat.

The three were walking carefully in a large marsh, looking for a shallow place to the middle of the muddy pond, where Water lily grew in abundance there. "We may have to swim." Redmane hissed quietly, receiving a reluctant nod from Envyfur.

Just as they slipped into water over their head Duskclaw heard voices, and not from any of her companions. "Did you hear that?" The voice meowed urgently.

"You`re just being paranoid Bluepaw." The deep voice of Bladeclaw told his apprentice.

Duskclaw took a deep breath and sunk to the weeded bottom. She looked up to the sunlight rippling through the top of the water and could just make out the blue figure of the apprentice. The apprentice sat down and placed a paw in the water, showing no sign of leaving.

The medicine cat began to panic, her lungs were beginning to burn and while Bluepaw had time, Duskclaw didn`t. Through blurred vision she was grateful to see the brown tabby tom, Bladeclaw, push his apprentice away from the water and some mumbling.

Duskclaw felt relief flood through her as she headed to the surface, only to find that her foot was dangerously enwombed in a heavy piece of wood. She thrashed around desperately for air, Redmane and Envyfur were nowhere in her small line of vision, and she was drowning.

*****

Wow, there are a lot of cliff hangers in this chapter!


	4. warnings

'_I can`t die, not now, not here.' _Duskclaw thought desperately to herself, thrashing and struggling with every ounce of energy she had left in her pained body. She had a kit, young and dying in her den, an apprentice who had no confidence in herself, and a mission to carry out. How could she die, she was too busy and to important to die right now.

Her lungs burned like a snake`s bite and blackness like a film slide over her eyelids, her struggles stopped slowly and she began to float in suspended animation. Her mind drifted elsewhere and the pain turned into a soft genital beating and bright vivid colors took the place of the blackness.

As shapes began to blink into focus she realized that she had to be dead, or close to it. A white and grey she cat was coming forward, her pelt covered with silvery sparkles, Starrysky, the medicine cat before Bluestreak. "The end is near my sister in medicine." She spoke in an echoing voice.

"Starrysky, I know the end is near, I`m drowning, how much time do I have?" Starrysky asked the Cloudclan inhabitant. Her eyes strayed from the medicine cat to her surroundings.

She was standing in the Cloudclan sacred grounds, a beautiful clear pond of water rippled from the bubbles of trout, which swam in abundance in the water. Large thick trees teamed with birds and small rodents, whose small sounds seemed to never stop, they were sounds that her clan didn`t hear much in the desert. The sound of an unseen stream sounded through the chattering of the animals, and moonlight reflected off of the pond (the time of day and night for the dead is opposite, as all cats know).

"No, you`re not going to die now, but many will." Starrysky stated simply, Duskclaw snapped her head back to attention at the mention of many deaths. "Blood-cough is growing stronger, soon Metallic-dust won`t be able to stop it, and Smokeclan, Desertclan, and Nightclan will suffer dearly from it."

"What about Dayclan, why does everyone forget Dayclan?" Duskclaw asked with a deep curiosity.

Starrysky shuffled her grey socked feet nervously, "They`ll be affected but not nearly as badly." She said in a soft voice, "Not even you would understand Duskclaw, that day was a long time ago, but Dayclan has been affected from it ever since." She added quickly when she saw Duskclaw`s quizzical gaze.

"Fine, but what about these deaths? There _has_ to be a way we can prevent them, I mean, we defeated Blood-cough before we can do it again…" She began meekly, "… right?" She faltered when she saw Starrysky`s shake of head.

"No, it`s a mutated disease none of our herbs can help them, but there may be a cure away from the clan…" Starrysky began slowly.

"Where? Where can I go to cure this?" Duskclaw asked eagerly.

Starrysky sighed and rolled her deep blue eyes at her hurriedness, "_You_ can`t go anywhere, you have to help your clan, unless you trust your apprentice to take care of a whole clan…" She began questionably.

"Don`t talk about my apprentice," Duskclaw snarled protectively, "But you`re probably right…" She sighed in faint agreement.

"Two cats from each clan will travel past the mountains of the South and to the lake of Takenland, as we call it. There will be four clans named after different elements than our own; they are very different than we in the warrior code and their way of life, but not evil. Their ancestors live in a place called Starclan, and what the eight cats who are selected to go need to do is get some Night-glow-plant, then each of them needs to carry it back and place it at Mother-tree." Starrysky explained seriously.

"Night-glow-plant… is that like the rocks that glow at night that I always see?" Duskclaw asked quietly.

"Very much so, it grows only at night and when it grows it grows quickly and in abundance, then you grind up the petals into a liquid and then give them to the patient." Starrysky instructed orderly.

"Is this logical? Sending eight of our warriors out to who-knows-where and make them take something of these other clans?" Duskclaw asked with sincere doubt.

"Humph, logic… Duskclaw is anything seriously logically? To one it`s logically but to another it`s not, logic is an option of the mind, other Cloudclan members are telling the other medicine cats what they need to do, but it appears that one of your clan mates is reliving you so I must let you go." Starrysky told her sternly.

Duskclaw felt her vision go back to the blackness that had first engulfed her and the pain in her lungs returned stronger than before. As her vision cleared she found herself blinking at the red face of Redmane. "Are you OK Duskclaw?" He asked worriedly.

"Yeah, no thanks to you Envyfur." She hissed angrily at the greenish tom, who was sitting with the pink water flower in his mouth.

"I knew you`d be fine so I got the Water lily." He growled back defensively.

"Oh yeah, well…" Duskclaw began before being interrupted by Redmane.

"Will you two knock it off, the way you fight it`s hard to believe that you two are actually siblings." Redmane sighed. Duskclaw let the hair on her back lie flat, she did all too often that Envyfur was her brother. "Now I don`t know why you two are arguing, and quite frankly I really don`t care about your personally affairs, but can we _**please**_ work together for once?" He pleaded.

Duskclaw gave a reluctant nod, "Temporary truce?" Envyfur asked, Duskclaw lifted her head in a slight nod and smiled.

"I told you Bladeclaw, I told you!" A voice shouted triumphantly, Bluepaw.

"Intruders!" A voice hissed as a dark ginger and black tom jumped at the three.

"Run!" Envyfur stuttered behind the herbs as Redwhisker landed behind beside Duskclaw.

"Not so fast!" The voice of Finchsong laughed as she stepped out in front of them. She was shortly followed by Bladeclaw, Gingerpaw, and Dawnpaw, Duskclaw knew that they were hopelessly out numbered and the chances of them escaping were slim.

The six cats began to circle the smaller group, "This will make fine prisoners." Finchsong smiled. _'She is deranged.'_ Duskclaw concluded to herself.

"When I say go, run!" Redmane whispered lowly, managing to not move his muzzle. As Dawnpaw came around the second time he shouted go and attacked the smaller apprentice. The two siblings ran alongside each other, away from the battle that was braking out.

"Redmane!" Duskclaw shouted desperately as she turned around and saw that he wasn`t running away.

"No, keep going!" He yelled back before being swallowed in a frenzy of fur and claw. Bladeclaw broke away from the easily won battle and surged forward to the medicine cat and her brother. They turned and ran as fast as they could, their paws seemed to fly in perfect unison, and all hate forgotten they focused on only escaping with their pelts intact.

They darted past the Dead-tree and into their territory, but Bladeclaw, Bluepaw, and Finchsong still chased after them. Duskclaw`s foot was sore from the dramatic pulling she had put on it from trying to avoid drowning, and when her foot snagged on a large root she flipped over herself.

Finchsong still laughed and tried to jump on her while she was still on the ground. Envyfur leapt in front of the crazed she cat, only to be toppled over by Bladeclaw, leaving Duskclaw with the apprentice and she cat.

Just as she was sure that her fate was sealed a battle screech broke through the air. A patrol consisting of Spikefur, Flufur, and Nightcrow came to their aid.

As soon as the fight began it was finished, the Dayclan warriors had cleared out of their territory, followed closely by Flufur and Nightcrow. "Good to guys alive, now I`m not good with math but… wasn`t there three of you before you left, and isn`t there now only two?" Spikefur asked, still panting from the fight.

"Yes, we lost Redmane; we have to get him back soon!"Envyfur hissed dryly.

"Yeah, but first I need to talk to Greycloud." Duskclaw told her brother, who stared back at her sadly at the lost of the brave warrior.

*****


	5. eight

*****

"It`s too late, it`s just too late!" Duskclaw heard Gingerpaw wail from the medicine even before she was in. She spared no time in hoping in the sun lit cave, what she saw saddened her.

Heatherkit was twitching involuntarily and the horrid stench of death clung to her, Duskclaw lowered her head in mourning. Heatherkit had died; she had lost Redmane for what? To find that she was too late, a kit had died. Bluestreak looked at her sadly, "This was the worst case of Blood-cough I`ve ever seen." She croaked.

"No, Blood-cough has mutated, Starrysky was right." Duskclaw ensured the worried elder.

Gingerpaw looked up nervously, "Oh no! What will happen to Silverbreeze`s kits when they`re born?" She gasped with horrible fright.

Duskclaw looked over to Bluestreak in surprise, "She came over shortly after you left, she`s carrying Batshadow`s kits. Not the best time in my opinion." Bluestreak sighed sadly. "What about, Greycloud, what`d he say?" She asked.

"The normal, 'You realize…' he said he would discuss it with the other clans at Crescent-moon tonight." Duskclaw sighed, "Little we can do until Cloudclan tells us what cats to send out."

"It would appear that we have to wait things out, but about Heatherkit? Who wants to tell her mother she died?" Duskclaw asked, making great care not to touch the infected kit.

Bluestreak shook her head, "I`ve told too many about deaths in my life!" She croaked backing out of the den hurriedly.

"Figures." Duskclaw muttered, following Bluestreak to the queens den.

*****

Applepaw followed behind her mentor, Cloudpelt in the dark moon lit night. The about ¼ of the clan was following behind Greycloud, ears pricked forward, there was no reason to be hiding in the thick forest of Arching. For every cat in the four clans, even kits, knew of the truce on Crescent-moon, but the precaution was sometimes very rewarding.

Greycloud flicked his long grey tail, signaling for his clan to advance to the break of the trees. The other three clans were already there gossiping and chatting about affairs in their clan.

Greycloud went up to the large rock where the other leaders, Cricketcloud, Nightcloud, and Mistycloud sat, talking intently, occasionally casting out worried looks into the crowd. "Did I miss something?" Greycloud asked, jumping up to them.

"Did your medicine cat tell you about the Blood-cough?" Cricketcloud asked, looking up at the Desertclan leader with her green eyes.

"Yeah, she told me, she also told me that you took one of our warriors." Greycloud hissed angrily at the leader.

Cricketcloud looked at him blankly, "Oh yes, the red one, I guess that it you can have him back… soon." She smiled coolly, making the enraged leader spit in anger.

"Can we get back to the matter at paw, will we or will we not, let two of our warriors go to these _other_ clans?" Mistycloud asked, looking down at the other three spitefully.

"Do we a choice, Cloudclan told us we had to so…" Cricketcloud began thoughtfully, "We just need to know w…" She began before being cut off by a bright light in the sky.

Four starry figures walked through the light, Starrysky, Sorrowwillow, Bluemoon, and Twistedheart, each had died years ago. Every cat in the clearing looked up at the dead cats in amazement. "We have come to tell you of the murderous disease." Bluemoon, the old Dayclan warrior said.

"As you know, Sorrowwillow once thought she found the answer to the cursed Blood-cough," Starrysky yowled loudly, flicking her tail at the silvery she-cat beside her. "But as you know it`s coming back." She finished.

"By tomorrow morning you will know which cats to send, the eight will meet at Mother-tree and then to the mountains to the South, then to the Lake of Takenland." Twistedheart explained the already known.

"Why do they call it Takenland?" A curious Nightclan apprentice named Birdpaw asked. She was a relatively new apprentice and did not notice the fact that they were actually Cloudclan warriors.

Sorrowwillow looked over at her and smiled, "Our territory was once _very_ large and hosted many clans, but then it was taken." She explained, "We wish we could tell you each more, but not even our power is strong enough to stay out of Cloudclan for long, we will tell you the names of the cats going to the lake tonight…" She finished, fading off into the darkness of light.

When each of the remaining four had faded off after her Nightcloud spoke up, "Well… I believe that all is fine in our territories, Nightclan has recovered from Blood-cough and is fine." He said hurriedly.

"Yeah, I think this meeting is over…" Cricketcloud declared, jumping from the rock.

*****

The next day Batshadow sat at the Mother-tree beside Wildeyes, they had both been chosen by Cloudclan to go to the other clans and they were interested to see which other cats would come, their wait was short.

From the west the Smokeclan representatives emerged from the dense underbrush, their names were Starflower and Oakpaw. Then came Dayclan, Bunnytail and Sunstar, Batshadow was very nervous now, his mate was going to give birth and he would be away.

Wildeyes felt her heart drop when she saw the Nightclan, Hawkpaw was fine, she liked Hawkpaw, but not so much Snowfeather, and Snowfeather hated Desertclan…


	6. the horror the horror

*****

Duskclaw walked in Cloudclan that night, a darker side of Cloudclan that she had ever seen. She walked along a narrow winding path, which broke off into a gorge, at the edge of the gorge sat a broad shouldered cat, whom she instinctively went over to.

As she went approached the tom he spoke, "You shouldn`t be in this part of the forest Duskclaw." He said in a hollow low voice.

"How do you know my name?" She asked, walking to stand before the once alive cat.

He never turned his head but simply said, "I watch things." He still looked down at the gorge, staring with deep never blinking blue eyes. "Look." He motioned, flicking her tail to the gorge in front of her.

She looked down quickly and gasped, images flicked in front of her eyes, going so fast that she couldn`t see them with her eyes, but her brain caught the images. Cats crying in pain, fights, deaths, cats coughing, everything consisted of pain unlike the hunting grounds of Cloudclan.

"What is this? Where am I, who are you?!" She gasped, shaking her head and backing away from the cat and the gorge. Yet the mysteries cat kept staring, staring at the sorrow of the cats, a single glimmer of water dripped from his eye sadly.

"This is the pain of every cat, past, future, and present, I sit watching it…" He paused, "This is the shattered dreams and memories of the cats, which is how I know you…" He continued, "As for me, I have no name, I did but after the other cats took my lake…" He trailed off, his eyes widening in pain.

"Oh the lake! My beautiful lake! My beautiful Rose… WHY?!!" He shouted, his voice changing in a high pitched wail. "My Rose died with the soul of the lake! They took her, THEY TOOK HER!! They`re holding her captive! ROSE!" He shouted, his eyes never leaving the gorge, he tried to pull away from it, but failed, his eyes were stuck to it.

"What happened?" Duskclaw asked the tom, who quieted.

"Long ago, we lived at the lake all our clans did, Rose oh Rose, I`m sorry, we fought, then Rose… Curse you Starclan, why did you put this upon me? Why Rose, why her?" He cried again before calming himself, "Look… look at the pain!" He shouted, looking deeper into the gorge.

Scared, Duskclaw looked into the gorge. There was a lake, it was gorgeous, water shining off of the water, shimmering even. Then there was blood, and cats fighting, a dark brown tom, who must have been the cat she was beside, tore at one then another.

Then the scene flickered, she was looking at the tom standing over a fallen pinkish she cat, who was dying. Starry figures stood over them, snickering; this must have been the Starclan. "Soul for a soul eye for an eye." They were mocking over and over.

The tom looked down at the Rose and grinded his teeth, but nodded his head, the Starclan cats smiled, then the tom fell dead. The souls of both cats rose up, but the four of the Starclan warriors grabbed Rose and five of them the tom.

"They lied they said they would spare Rose, they didn`t, they captured her! Held her captive! Then me, they imprisoned me here, to watch only pain! Only pain!" He yowled over and over again, erupting the memory.

"I`m sorry, I`m sorry!" Duskclaw yowled, trying to run from the tom but he only said stay.

"I`m sorry, too, the memory is so strong, be careful of the Starclan." He warned, before Duskclaw awoke from her horrid dream.

*****

*Wow… Helper, where did that come from?*

*I`m the master of the creepy things.*

*The master…? OMG!*

*What now?*

*You read the Edgar Allen Poe books! You know what that does to you!*

*Point being?*

*That`s why I have them under lock and key, because you start going weirdo on me!*

*It`ll wear off soon.*

*For your sake it better!*


	7. Delta and crew

*****

"Is there any way around it? There seems to be a lot of Top-walkers around here, and you know how I feel about them." Bunnytail muttered.

"No, actually I don`t because I don`t care about you." Snowfeather hissed angrily to the black she cat. The eight were sitting at the edge of a white washed fence, a Black-sheet was on their other side, cars stormed past on it at abnormal speeds, splashing Snowfeather`s fur a light brown.

"I hate cars!" She snarled, shaking her pelt free of the dirty water, ignoring the snickers from the other clan cats. "Come on!" She hissed slipping under the fence just as another car came down the Black-sheet.

As the others slipped in they began to notice how much greener things were on the other side of the fence. The grass was long and the green hills were dotted with small black objects, "What are they?" Hawkpaw asked nervously about the animals grazing in the distance.

"Probably baby cows, or maybe even horses." Sunstar replied logically, "But we don`t have time for this right now, it`s getting late and we need to find shelter." He added.

"For once a Dayclan warrior makes an educated comment." Oakpaw snorted.

"Listen you stuck up little apprentice…!" Sunstar hissed spitefully before being interrupted by Bunnytail.

"Guys can we stop fighting?" She spat to the other felines.

"Oh, shut-up _Bunnytail_, what kind of name is that anyway? Bunny tail, how tough does that name sound?" Snowfeather hissed, jumping on the Dayclan warrior, who let out a surprised yelp.

Hawkpaw tried to jump to his mother's aid but was stopped by a fighting Hawkpaw, who was locked in combat with the older warrior, Wildeyes. Batshadow soon found himself in the fight too, and soon on the bottom of Snowfeather, "You killed Featherpaw and Blackpaw!" She hissed in the toms ear evilly.

"Your sister and brother?" He asked back, trying to claw at her stomach.

"Yes! They were defenseless!" She snarled back to him.

Batshadow stared at her wide eyed, "No, I didn`t, it was another warrior, and it was a fair duel!" He retorted frantically trying to throw her.

"I don`t care, what`s one Desertclan from another to me?" She smiled back, raising her paw in vengeance.

"Who yous?" A voice said, startling the cats from their battle.

Each cat separated themselves from each other and stared at the creature before them, it was like none that they have ever seen before. It was about the size of a cow calf, which gave Wildeyes the idea that it was one of the creatures that had been grazing.

It was light grey and each of its four toes had three hove like things, it had two oval like ears that was attached to a long face. Its` eyes were small and watery, place on each side of its head, and a pointy nose. Its legs were short and stocky and its body was armored with thick skin. But the most noticeable thing about it was its single small horn sprouting from his nose.

"What are you?" Snowfeather asked.

"I a rhinoceros, you a small lion." She stuttered, she had to be less than a year old, despite her size and looks.

"We`re not lions, but thanks for thinking so." Bunnytail told the calve.

"Do you understand us?" Wildeyes asked it.

"Yes, me understand lion." She nodded happily.

Oakpaw sighed, "We`re cats, not lions." The rhinoceros nodded again.

"Do you have a name?" Starflower asked her.

Once again she nodded, "Humans call me Delta. Me real name Brokenspirit." She replied choppily.

"The humans?" Snowfeather said in question.

"Walk on two legs, no hair, not speak." She explained, describing Up-walkers perfectly, humans must have been their real names. "Late, come show friends, sleep." She ordered, walking away from the group.

The cats reluctantly followed the young rhino named Delta/Brokenspirit to a barn.

*****

"Disk is Laststand, or Theta, as da humans call er." She explained, flicking her tail to a smaller rhino calve in a stale.

"Ello lions." Theta smiled.

"Thy Crossinghorn and Speakingwind, ugh… Omega and Upsilon." She motioned, flicking her tail to a male and female calve who were eating out of a wooden grain bin. "Dast is Deepscar (Alpha)." She finished pointing to a male with scars going down his whole body.

She then led the group to a stable where fresh hay laid. "Lay, dere room." She smiled, nodding her heavy head forward.

"Where are your parents?" Starflower asked when they had all settled.

Delta`s black eyes dropped, "My moder dwas Wildgrass, she dwas killed by humans, so dwas my fader." She replied sadly. "All of ours dwas." She added, flicking her head to the other rhinos.

"Then… how did you get here?" Wildeyes questioned.

"We dwas darving and nicer humans came dand got us." Delta answered, still not lifting her head in obvious grief. "We ared our own family you know?" She answered, "We are lucky, and so are you for havin each oder." Delta said with a slight happy smile at the eight.

She was obviously a very different animal, and not just by her speech and looks. She had lost all her family, yet she still managed to be happy, nobody dared to tell her that they were not a family or a group. "How about you?" She asked them.

"We need to get over the mountain, our clans… our big family… are going to be very sick." Batshadow explained as simply as he could.

"Are dere moders in your family?" Delta asked coarsely.

"Yes many…" Oakpaw nodded. Delta got a faraway look in her glossy black eyes.

"I hope dey will be fine…" She whispered sadly.

*****

*Helper, champion of sorrow, tell them about the rhinos.*

*Very well then Elemental, I have a whole speech.*

*Can we make this a little shorter?*

*Delta is like so many rhino calves in the world, their mothers are poached and killed for their horn, and the hunters leave their bodies, they kill only for the horns. The calves are then abandoned and starve, get sick, die, and some lucky ones are taken in by humans. But not even the calves are safe in these sanctuaries, poachers break into these areas, and there are too little helpers to prevent them being killed. There are five rhino species in the world, all of which are endangered, as a matter of fact, at about 10 left in the wild the Javan rhino is the most endangered in the world. You can stop this by donating to rhino organizations, a rhino is calling for your help…*

*That was… OK…*

*OK?*

*Poor rhino calves*

*Yeah*

*Go onto google and look at rhino calves aren`t they cute?*

*BUT they`re dying*

*and only you can help.*


	8. apprentices

*****

Greycloud looked around sadly, things were not going well for Desertclan and from what he heard, the other clans were facing the same problem. Food was plentiful enough, but the main issue was that there was to many cats to feed and to little cats to hunt.

Duskclaw and Gingerpaw were working their paws off with five cats in their den, one being Redmane, who came back with large, deep scratches in his pelt. Then there was Silverbreeze, she was beginning to feel the weight of her kits for the first time. Honeyeyes had gone into shock after she heard her kit had died and she had yet to recover from it, leaving Foxpool and Hawkfire to look over her remaining ones. Then there was the worst part, Nightcrow and Smokefang had caught the mutated disease.

With this problem Bluestreak had been forced to come out of retirement, she took care of the cats in the medicine den, and she managed to hunt and catch prey despite her age. Greycloud hated to admit it but even he was beginning to feel sickly.

But he pushed the thought of sickness aside and focused on what he had to do as he jumped onto the twisted, wind smoothed, rock where he called clan gatherings. Ravenkit and Squirrelkit were still about a week to young to become apprentices, but with the sickness and the needs that Eclipsekit, Creamkit, Moonkit, and Streamkit needed from Hawkfire, it seemed to be a necessity.

"All Desertclan cats gather around the Twisted-rock!" He yowled into the noon air. Cats flowed out from their dens and separated themselves from the midday sharing of tongues to sit around the large rock. Autumnsong took her place at the base of the rock, beside the place that would have been left for Duskclaw and Gingerpaw, if they were not so busy.

Bluestreak was darting around in back of the crowd in every direction, dropping off her prey before making her way back to the camp exit. "Bluestreak, please settle down for a little, you`re an elder…" Greycloud began, but she was already gone. _'Why does no one listen to me?'_He sighed to himself angrily.

Quickly he turned his gaze back onto the clan, Ravenkit and Squirrelkit were bouncing around, they did not realize that this meeting was for them. "Ravenkit and Squirrelkit, you are nearing the time where you become apprentices, and though you are not the right age I believe that you can handle apprenticeship." He announced to his clan.

Greycloud jumped down from the rock to the kits, who had stepped forward, "Do you both promise to honor Cloudclan in everything you do?" He asked waiting for their answer (which was a enthusiastic nod of their heads.) "Then from here on until you become warriors, I give you your apprentice names." He said loudly.

Greycloud stepped forward to the dark ginger she cat, "Squirrelkit, you shall now be called Squirrelpaw." He declared, quickly licking her head. "Silverlight, it is your time to have an apprentice, do you accept Squirrelpaw as your apprentice?" Greycloud asked the dark brown tabby.

"Yes." She replied happily.

Greycloud nodded happily as Squirrelpaw ran to her new mentor before turning his attention back onto her slightly larger black sibling, "Ravenkit, from now until you become a warrior, you will bare the name, Ravenpaw." He said licking his head, scanning the crowd to find a warrior without an apprentice before getting a clue of who he wanted.

"Envyfur, you have yet to receive an apprentice, will you take Ravenpaw into your care?" He asked the warrior, Envyfur smiled and nodded. Ravenpaw jumped excitedly to his new mentor. Each cat in the crowd cheered their new names, all except Reedclaw… was that hate Greycloud saw in his eyes? Then it hit him, he had never had an apprentice before… and you needed at least two to become a deputy…

*****

*Sorry that was so short…*

*You should be sorry Elemental, you wrote it, I didn`t!*

*Ok, until you give me back the Edgar Allan Poe books you will not write ANYTHING!*


	9. joining and leaving

*****

"So… dis is id…" Delta slurred to the cats, her eyes dropping sadly. She had leaded the eight to another wooden fence, facing the towering mountains that stood to the south.

Bunnytail looked at her kindly, "Thank-you Delta, you really helped us." She smiled to her.

"Dake good care of da moders and kids at your dlan." She said to them with a smile that could light up the heart of any Nightclan warrior. "Please come back here`d." Delta pleaded with them.

"…alright…" Snowfeather muttered, but it was a broken promise Batshadow knew, still it made Delta happier, even than before. "We`ll try…" She rephrased, breaking the calves spirits.

Delta raised her large, heavy head, "Oday, you bedder hurry dhen." She said nudging them forward. Snowfeather went through the railing first, followed by Oakpaw and Hawkpaw, and then the others filtered through.

Wildeyes felt slight grief in her heart, she hoped that Delta could return home some day, across the ocean that she spoke so fondly of. Yet as she looked back a Top-walker was leading her away, the chances of ever seeing her again was agonizingly slim…

Sunstar inhaled deeply, the sky carried the fresh scent of rain, and perhaps something a little stronger, crisper. It was then he realized how much colder things had gotten from the warm air from Dayclan, where only humid air existed. "What is that smell…?" He thought out loud.

Hawkpaw stopped and opened his mouth, rolling the scent over and over before cringing from the sharpness of it. "It`s so strong, and so… so…"

"Cold?" Oakpaw put in with a roll of his eyes. Hawkpaw shuffled his feet embarrassedly; he had never been the quickest of putting what he was thinking into words.

Starflower gave a nod of her head, "I guess the mountains bring in colder air… Delta has that entire pelt to protect her from the cold I guess." She added, sighing at the thought of the Delta.

*****

Gingerpaw looked down in dismay, Greycloud had come to the medicine den and had been diagnosed with the dreaded mutated disease and his body was caught in horrid spasms, Autumnsong was leading the clan for now. Nightcrow was holding on with her last shred of strength, and Flufur was continuing to go into the den to give her friend hope.

Newly to the den was Rustyfoot, who, too, was sick. Things were looking slim, all for but one cat, Reedclaw, he had once, as a kit, gotten the mutated disease and managed to live, giving him immunity from it. He never let the other cats go of that fact either, he stalked around with his tail and head held high, gloating.

That was what he was doing the time that Flightpaw ran into the camp crying, "Smokeclan is coming, everyone in Smokeclan is coming!"

"What?!" Autumnsong cried, slumping her body upward as an overly thin Mistycloud limped into the sandy hollow where Desertclan sat. "What is the meaning of this?" She asked as Silentecho and the elder, Foxfoot walked in, followed by the rest of the clan.

"Where is Greycloud?" Mistycloud croaked out to the deputy.

Autumnsong shuffled her paws, "He is sick right now…" She answered, "But I am filling his spot." Mistycloud nodded in understanding.

"I am sorry to see your clan in such a poor state but…" Mistycloud trailed off, fluffing out her grey fur. "We would like to join clans… just until this is over." She hurried, Autumnsong looked at the stormclan cats, all were thin and showed signs of starvation.

"Where`s the rest of your clan?" Autumnsong asked, narrowing her eyes.

Mistycloud looked at them angrily, "We left the sick ones at a hollow a little ways from here, I`d advise you do the same." She explained more gentility with a sigh.

Autumnsong closed her green eyes in thought, never before had any of the clans joined together, but if one of the clans didn`t make it through this academic and disappeared, what would Cloudclan do? She imagined how hard this was for a prideful leader like Mistycloud, asking another enemy clan for help.

"Let them…" The coughed voice of Greycloud moaned, he had walked an agonizing 50 feet to the entrance (and exit) of the medicine den, "More hunters… take sick to the hollow… safer…" He gasped out, before his body was wracked in more coughing fits.

Autumnsong nodded to Smokeclan and a small kit named Yarrowkit cried out from her mother`s side, "Do we have to stay here?" She asked.

"Yeah, this clan smells funny." Firekit agreed hastily.

"And it`s so hot here, I think my pelt will melt off!" Fireflykit shouted supporting.

Deertail put her brown tail around her three kits, "Hush now, and you will safer and healthier in Desertclan." She whispered to them, looking up apologetically.

*****

*SHORT!*  
*Ok mister, 'I know it all in the universe and everything in it,' you can write the next chapter!  
*Hala!*  
*…what have I done…?*

*Ok, seriously, hala back… anyone?*


	10. from good to bad to worst

*****

Duskclaw closed her eyes, Featherbreeze lay beside her, Silentecho and Gingerpaw were back at Desertclan camp. Duskclaw didn`t exactly feel good about leaving her apprentice back at the camp, with Silverbreeze so close to kitting. But it was safer there than here in isolation where the disease was at its full.

The sleep was well deserved and respected, the sick cats and medicine cats had been sent to the hollow, where everyone was trying nonstop to slow the spread of disease from the other none effected members of the two clans.

Yet instead of a peaceful sleep Duskclaw received yet another dream from Cloudclan, or in this case… not Cloudclan, but instead the place of sorrow. There the tom still sat, still staring, but he was at more ease this time.

"Hello Duskclaw, good to hear you again, I wish I could say that I see you but…" He meowed, his voice trailing away. It had never occurred to Duskclaw that Watcher (that she had named him), could not see her, always looking down at the gorge.

"Hi, you seem better…" She replied carefully, afraid that anything she said would set him off again.

But Watcher only smiled and nodded, "Yes, soon I pray that I will be able to see you! I can feel something, soon Starclan will have no power over me, I can feel it, and then I will be able to go to my ancestors in Cloudclan!" He meowed excitedly, bouncing in his one small position.

Duskclaw nodded, she was excited for him but she had a question nagging in the back of her mind. "You have a question?" He asked, reading her mind perfectly.

"Yes, if you can answer it…" Duskclaw began nervously.

"I will to the best of my abilities." He answered simply.

Duskclaw nodded and began, "Cloudclan told me that Dayclan would not be hit as hard as the other clans, and I want to know why." She said hurriedly, Watcher frowned in discontent.

"Duskclaw, you do realize that you are twisting fate?" He asked, his muzzle in a concerning frown. Duskclaw had not realized that but she nodded anyway.

"All right…" He sighed, "Long ago, well… it would probably be easier if I just showed you." He sighed again, motioning with a flick of his feathery tail. Duskclaw moved forward, she was seeing a birds-eye-view of all the lands, from the lake, mountains, desert, moor, forest, nearly the whole world which she lived.

"Long ago, there were four clans, Nightclan`s territory was from the mountains to desert, Smokeclan lived from the moor and forest, and Desertclan inhabited the whole desert, which is now the territories you know. Dayclan, lived at the lake, and shared that land with a small tribe of cats, who at first did not cause any trouble." Watcher explained the map.

"Smokeclan shared the forest with four clans, but they were fine where they were, and safe. At the time Cloudclan ruled over almost all the sky`s, and everyone was fine with that. One cat took it to the whole, that cats name was Rubble, and was a Dayclan cat. I… I…can hardly remember him, but he was alive during the time of me and Rose though."

"Rubble tried his best to convince the other cats on all the other cats outside the four clans to turn to Cloudclan, but they would not. Instead they began to revolt, their numbers were strong, and rouges and loners came to their aid. All the odds were against us and Rubble, things did not end well, and we lost. I had killed one of the leaders 'Thunder' and in turn they punished me by killing Rose… and you saw what happened."

"None of us knew about their ancestors, Starclan, they had kept that sky clan to themselves, and in turn they destroyed us. Well, they didn`t destroy us, but they pushed us to Desertclan territory, but we lived, and look at us now. Who knows maybe one day, we will be able to gain back all of the territory we once lost." He finished, the water rippling away from the scene, ending with the image of the lake.

"For Rubble`s valiant effort, he was rewarded a grant of a wish, and he wished for long live hood for his clan, and he was granted that, to a limit…" Watcher finished, suddenly his eyes grew large again, _"When the stars are found of dishonesty and untruth, the rulers will once again continue their raid…"_ He said, the prophecy flowing from his mouth in a liquid motion.

Duskclaw woke with a start, another prophecy, oh Cloudclan, what could she do?

*****

It was colder that morning; frost layered the ground, shimmering white from the rising sun. The short furred cats of the desert very rarely faced such immense cold, and when they did it was usually only at night, never during the day.

"I hate this…" Oakpaw muttered angrily as he shivered in coldness.

Sunstar rolled his amber eyes, "It`s not that bad, I heard from a loner that it was colder the further from the desert you get." He muttered to him.

"Can we shut up and get moving?" Snowfeather yawned, her white pelt sticking up in every direction.

"Nice fur!" Oakpaw snickered to the white warrior, whose hackles rouse in furry.

Starflower gave a slight sigh, "Come on you two, we have to hurry, imagine, the whole clans dying and we fighting!" She hissed.

"Yeah, think of Delta, what would she do if we let her down?" Wildeyes added, her mismatching eyes darting, silencing the other cats further. The other cats nodded in seldom agreement, then they looked up from where they sat to the mountain they had to climb.

"How are we going to get up there?" Hawkpaw muttered under his breath.

Starflower looked up and looked back down before smiling, "It all starts with a step." She meowed, walking up to the jagged rocks at the base of the mountain.

"Oh joy." Snowfeather hissed, watching the cat try desperately to struggle up the mountain side…

*****

Gingerpaw stalked along in the woods, everything was near fine, no new cats had been affected yet, and this morning, she was hunting for the first time in ages. Rustyfoot had since gone off to hunt the scent of rabbit, while she continues to follow the smell of lizard.

As soon as she found her prey she dropped in a stalking position, the black and yellow creature was doing nothing, just sitting there with its back turned. She jumped onto it, it did not fight back, and she easily bit into its spinal cord.

In confusion she looked down at it, it had red foam bubbling at the side of its mouth, eyes, and nose. Blood-cough, she realized in horror. The prey was contagious, the prey was… her eyes rounded in horror and ran back to the camp.

*****

**Thank you to winterkitten for the amazing idea of prey being dangerous!**


	11. loss

*****

Duskclaw scorned two claws down the tree, two scratches for two deaths. First was Nightcrow, who gave up the desperate fight for life that night, and Greycloud. Who had lost his last life and was now joined in the ranks of Cloudclan, there may be the leader could finally reach the peace he so richly deserved.

While the deaths had shocked everyone in the sick hollow there was a larger issue, those in camp needed to know about them, but that was impossible. Duskclaw and Silentecho could not take the journey, both medicine cats had caught the disease. What would Desertclan do with no leader? Things seemed horribly hopeless and grim.

Just then there was a rattling in the bushes and the loner, Bird immerged from them. "The sickness has spread to the non-clan cats too." He meowed mournfully. Duskclaw looked at the small tom, she remembered helping to give birth to him, he was the only survivor of Yellowmarrow`s litter. The only surviving son of Greycloud.

"Greycloud`s dead." She hissed to him, taking her anger out on his kit. Bird dropped his head, he had never really known his father, he had left the clan as a kit and never returned, but he always had regretted his decision. "I need you to tell the clan that he and Nightcrow has gone to Cloudclan." She murmured, barely seeing the nod Bird gave her before darting off.

"_Duskclaw, it`s fine, Nightcrow is with me, watching you all, but without the sorrow."_ The voice of Watcher whispered in her ear, _"Greycloud has caught the snake he always wanted to catch." _He added with a chuckle.

"Does that mean you`re free?" Duskclaw asked the air.

There was a pause, _"Almost, there hold is softening and their might is dwindling."_ He said, Duskclaw wondered how it was he could hear her, or speak with her but jerked back to attention as he said one more line, _"When the stars are found of dishonesty and untruth, the rulers will continue their raid." _He said, repeating the prophecy he had once said.

"How can the stars be talked to? What rulers and what raid that was never finished?" She shouted, but her only response was the soft blowing of the wind. She did not know what that meant, but something was going to change, and all the pain going on right now was linked to it somehow.

*****


	12. the speech of trust the speech of hope

*****

"Will you shut-up!" Snowfeather moaned to the ever complaining Oakpaw, who just ignored her with a flick of his tail, as if discarding her words.

The eight were nearing the face of the mountain now and the rocks were jagged and sliced through the Smokeclan, Dayclan, and Nightclan cats pads. Batshadow and Wildeyes were easier off, as they often had to climb through large brambles and stones to get to their prey.

Bunnytail thought her temper was a fine one, but that was quickly being worn down to as she became more tired and weary, especially with Oakpaw whining about how cats shouldn`t have to climb mountains. Bunnytail began to wonder if Cloudclan had made a mistake by choosing the apprentice to go on such a demanding journey. "Come on we`re almost to the top…" Bunnytail muttered to Oakpaw, who, once more, paid no cat no mind.

"That`s another thing, what will we fine when we get to the top? Dear Cloudclan I hope it`s a big fat mouse, I`m starving!" Oakpaw meowed, making Bunnytail`s stomach growl loudly. None of them had eaten all day and each was feeling the effects.

She heard Snowfeather sigh behind her, "At least things can`t get any worst…" Then on cue, the skies broke open and rain began to poor through the grey-black crack, "I stand corrected." Snowfeather yelped, shaking her pelt and sitting down.

Wildeyes sat down beside her and Snowfeather jumped up, "Get away from you multicolored eye freak!" She hissed, Wildeyes looked at her with a burning hate and opened her jaw to say a retort but was cut short as Starflower jumped between the two.

"Come on, can`t we all get along, how do you expect us to save the clans if we can hardly save ourselves from ourselves?" Starflower growled giving them a blazing look. Sunstar was about to add another comment, most likely a bad one, but he too, was interrupted.

"You guys! Get out of the rain this minute!" A tom`s voice hissed above the plodding of the rain.

"Who are you?" Hawkpaw hissed trying to look as big as possible, but it was hard with his brown pelt sticking to him with the water.

"Just get inside of the cave now!" The unknown voice meowed, obviously agitated at the cats` hesitation. Gingerly the eight stepped to the brambles where the voice had come from, and they were greeted by a pair of vivid green eyes, "Come inside, it`s calmer in here." It said, and the clan cats ran into it.

Inside they shook their pelts clean of rain water and turned to their helper, he was a large yellow tabby tom whose eyes were narrowed into small slits, "Who are you?" The tom asked them, his fur bristling.

"I`m Sunstar, this is Oakpaw, Hawkpaw, Snowfeather, Wildeyes, Bunnytail, Starflower, and Bunnytail." Sunstar introduced, though he was not comforted by the eerie chuckle the tom let out.

The tom stretched and purred, "Those are clan cat names, I`ve seen a couple around, never talked to them. I`m Sky-beyond-the-horizon, from the tribe of Rushing-water, but the names a bother to say over and over, so just call me Sky." Sky said.

"Sky, who is it?" A voice called out timidly from a dark corner of the den.

"Clan cats Rippling, oh yeah, that`s my mate, Rippling-water-of-the-healing-stream, call her Rippling." Sky explained looking them all shaking wet.

Batshadow looked at Sky curiously, "You said you`ve seen clan cats before?" He asked, his teeth chattering together in coldness.

Sky nodded, "At least twice, can`t place their names properly, but the first time I think their names were something like Brambletoe… claw… one of the two, Feathertail or was that Feathertoe? Then a couple of others from ugh… Lightningclan, Streamclan, Breezeclan, and hm… something like ah, forget it." Sky sighed, it had been a while ago he had seen them and his memory was small.

"Sky it was Crowpaw, Feathertail, Stormfur, Brambleclaw, Squirrelpaw, from Thunderclan, Riverclan, Shadowclan, and Windclan." The voice of Ripple sighed again, and from the shadows emerged a beautiful silver she cat with brilliant blue eyes that sparkled in the little light there was in the cave and she was heavily pregnant. "Sorry about him, I`m Rippling." She introduced the obvious.

Hawkpaw hopped up excitedly, "We`re going to those clans, do you know where they are?" He asked the two.

Rippling gave a smile, but it was Sky who spoke, "Can`t say we`ve ever been there, always lived on the mountain, in a tribe, or on our own." He answered in a soft tone. Hawkpaw`s face fell and sat back down with his head hanging. "But I heard tell that they live right over this mountain we`re on, and to the tree line where you`ll find a lake behind it." Sky added quickly, giving the traveling cats a small flicker of hope.

"Oh where`s my manners, you all must be starved, there`s a hawk or two in the back if you would like it." Ripple smiled, not waiting for an answer she walked into the darkness again. Starflower felt saliva fill in her mouth and leaned forward in aspiration as she heard shuffling and dragging in the gloom.

Rippling emerged dragging the two large and plump birds of prey in her mouth, "Here you go, you`ll have to share, but we can hunt in the morning." She said, dropping the kills on the ground with a thud.

With a quick thanks the ravishing cats jumped upon the two, tearing them apart in their frenzy before eating their pieces in satisfaction. "That was delicious!" Wildeyes said happily, her stomach full and content. "Thank you." She thanked them again with a purr.

"Not a problem, someone`s hungry you got to help them, or bad, bad, bad luck falls on you." Sky replied to her with a nice twinkle in his eye.

Even Oakpaw couldn`t complain with that, but he did begin to pry on Sky and Rippling about why the two weren`t with their clan.

Sky gave a sigh after a while and gave in, "You know that Stormfoot I was telling you about?"

"Storm_fur_!" Rippling corrected with a role of her eyes.

"Yeah well, he became mates with this Brook-where-small-fish-swim, well that made him a tribe cat, which I find ridiculous. Well we, we did nothing wrong, but this Stormfo-fur thought that we were bad news, and he and his little persuasive way of speech got us exiled." Sky finished with a smack of his paw on the rock floor.

"Well we didn`t ask Stone-teller if we could be mates, so…" Rippling added. Sky shuffled his feet and looked up at them guilty.

"Yeah… he hee…" Sky laughed nervously, shuffling his paws faster. "Well, I tend to over look that small matter."

"Small?" Rippling asked hollowly with a hard glare at her mate.

"Big I mean, very big!" Sky whelped, though he winked an eye at the visitors. Hawkpaw couldn`t help but laugh despite himself, Sky may be a rouge but he was one of the nicest ones he had met so far.

While the selected cats were eating their fill with the ex-clan cats, waiting out the rain, things were not as cheery down at the clan's camps.

The rain was pelting down from the sky, if one were to be out for more of a mere second they would walk into their dens freezing and their fur clings to their bones showing their thin exterior. The rain did more than wet them, it was a way to spread the horrid disease, but nobody cared anymore. Each cat was sick in one way or another and they were to tired and weak to do much about it.

That was one of the reasons nobody cared when the new leader, Autumncloud, called a clan meeting in the middle of all the ciaos, and they all left their already soaking clans to where she stood on her new perch. Smokeclan stayed inside the dens, as they had no reason to mettle with another clan's affair.

"Cats of Desertclan, I know that things have been hard on the clan, but we must carry on. Though the rain is falling and our hearts are drenched with sorrow, we shall, and must stand strong and look this threat in the eye." Autumncloud declared, though her voice was cracking with a sore throat. During the time of the speech Smokeclan poked their heads out into the storm, feeling that this message was for all of them.

But Autumncloud took no notice and continued, "I know that many of us have lost faith in Cloudclan, that they are no longer watching us, it is as if the great clouds in the sky are like our troubles, blocking out the stars. But no storm can last forever, and the stars will soon shine again, if we are to lose hope just because of one storm we will never be able to remain strong and untied, but if we stand together and never lose faith, we will live through these troubling times and the stars will once more shine. So stand united my friends and admiral staying clan, stay strong through these storms and floods, through these hurricanes and earthquakes, stay strong my friends, and stay strong my foes."

Autumncloud finished, her voice rising up to the clouds, the rain sputtered around her, but it was slowing as if her words had defeated the storm that everyone hated. In all of the clan`s history, this speech was the one to be remembered throughout all history and would be repeated so many times that everyone would know the name of Autumncloud.

The courageous yowls echoed throughout Desertclan territory and seeped into the very land itself, which sprouted trees and bushes in the spring, each new thing grew with the cries in their very roots.

When all those cries and yowls of glee died down Autumncloud spoke once more in a more solemn and less soul trending tone, "Now we must help our hurt and dying comrades in their own battle with themselves, they don`t know that the prey is infected and we need three warriors to take prey to them, and warning. Who will allow themselves to do this honor to the clans?" Autumncloud asked, looking over the crowd.

The tom Thunderfire, offered to go first, and a meow of dismay came from where the nursery was, "Thunderfire, what if you catch the disease, what about our kits?" Goldenflower cried to her mate, behind the golden she cat she could see the outline of Blizzardkit and Firekit.

Thunderfire looked at her with his green eyes, "I must, I will be fine, I promise." He assured her, Goldenflower didn`t look convinced but she held her head up high and wrapped her tail around her kits.

"I owe it to my father, I will hunt with the clan once more." Bird called through the clan and Autumncloud gave him a confused look before smiling at the loners' willingness. The second to go was her new deputy, Flufur.

Flufur dipped her head and said, "As a new deputy it is my duty to help this clan in all I can." She explained before going over to sit with Thunderfire and Bird.

'_Dear Cloudclan, let me be doing the right thing…' _Autumnsong thought worriedly to herself in silent prayer. Her only response was a flash of jagged lightning behind her, she took that as a yes.

*****


	13. the loss of a life to young

"Well, this is as far as I go!" Sky declared after he had leaded the traveling group near the very peak of the mountain. "That there is the tribes territory, I`m not sure they`re ready to see me again." He explained with a flick of his tail.

Starflower smiled at the tom in understanding, "Then may Cloudclan go with you and Rippling." She said.

Sky perked up suddenly and a sparkling glint came to his eyes, "Yeah… maybe Cloudclan will prove better to me than tribe-of-endless-hunting." He chuckled, "Now go on, your clan needs you and make sure you visit on your way back!" He yowled. They thanked him before running off and Sky watched until he couldn`t see them at all, he looked up to the sky and smiled, "May Cloudclan watch over you, too." He whispered to the air.

"How long have we been walking?" Oakpaw asked with an annoying sigh.

Snowfeather paused and looked around, the ground was hard brown dirt except for the stringy grass that grew in small clumps and dried brambles. "Since we left Sky… about an hour." She answered before trudging forward. Oakpaw gave another sigh before starting to purr in a rhythmic manner, "Let`s not start this again…" She muttered to him, though he didn`t stop.

Batshadow stopped suddenly and shrieked into the air, "Oakpaw! I will kill you if you DO NOT be quiet!" There was an eerie silence as his echo bounced and tumbled through the rocks and each cat held their breath, even though they had no reason too.

Hawkpaw looked at him and stated, "That was effective." Oakpaw had shut-up and they all carried on in silence that was until a hiss broke through the air.

They whorled around and were faced by a she cat and tom, each with identical white and silver markings. "What are you doing here?" The she cat hissed, the fur on her neck rising to make her look twice her normal height.

"Yeah, this is our territory!" The identical tom spat to them.

Oakpaw jumped forward and gave a low growl, "There`s two of you and eight of us, you want to take us on you`ll be sorry." He said lowly.

The she cat gave a mocking laugh, "Sure you eight look like such a threat, two kits on your side and six… well, six shaggy pelted freaks against us." She laughed again.

"Ok, you`re gonna die now." Snowfeather hissed, jumping for the she cat, who easily side stepped and scorned her claws against the white warriors flank. Snowfeather gave a yelp and flipped around, nipping her on the tail. But the tom was against her too, fighting with her sister as if they were one.

Hawkpaw jumped forward to help but was hit over the head with a rock and hit down, he looked up and to his surprise he saw another cat pushing them down from the cliff above. A black and white tom pushed a large rock down, and it hit him on the chest with a sickening crunch. Wildeyes ran forward and pushed the rock off of the broken apprentice and pulled him away from the cliff where the rocks couldn`t hit him.

Oakpaw was fighting the tom with Batshadow, but the rouge`s fighting skills were nearly impeccable and Oakpaw was thrown away to the raining stones, that hit him very hard. He went down but was quickly back on his paws, racing forward into the fight again, which was hard since rocks were being thrown faster now.

"Why are you attacking us?" Batshadow hissed, jumping away from the shadow of a boulder, which landed only inches away from him. He got no reply to his question, only a rock to the shoulder.

Just then the tom let out a shriek and collapsed, standing behind the toms body was Oakpaw, a triumphant look plastered upon his face. Bunnytail lunged at the she cat and they went tumbling over each other in the dirt, but Bunnytail had the upper paw. Somehow the cat on the ledge was able to fling a rock at such a perfect angle that it was thrown right into her neck, and stuck there. Bunnytail fell down as the blood flowed from her neck wound and the rock.

Wildeyes pulled Hawkpaw back into a crevice just as Snowfeather jumped forward and attacked the she cat in a wild craze that only Nightclan cats could do. But with the large tom still pushing rocks down there was no real hope that she could get to her attacker without being hit by the avalanche.

Sunstar did his best to climb up the wall-face to the stone flinger, but the tom only pushed down more rocks and stones, causing him to fall back down on her back. There was a sudden cry from the tom on the cliff ledge and his body crashed onto the ground, but he was up and running in a few seconds, the she cat saw that he was running, she darted off after him, followed by a limping tom.

Batshadow looked up in bewilderment to where the tom had been, there was a brown and white she cat in his place, staring down at them with large blue eyes. Before he could point this out a horrified call of Wildeyes shouted, "Hawkpaw!"

He ran over to the dim lighted hole and immediately felt blood well up under his paws, and he could hear jagged panting. He walked over to the deformed figure of Hawkpaw, the apprentice`s front leg was bent all the way forward, and the bone was sticking far out of his leg. His chest was caved in and Batshadow could see the outlined of his chest bones crunched up, he was completely matted with blood and Batshadow knew that this was his final battle.

"Hawkpaw! No…" Snowfeather cried for her son, collapsing next to him. Hawkpaw turned his head limply to her, the small bones in his neck snapping and crunching. He looked at her with glazing blue eyes, he opened his mouth in a desperate attempt to speak, but blood only poured from the opening.

"What happened?" Stardapple whispered sadly as Hawkpaw`s breaths slowed and his gasping stopped.

"He was smashed by a boulder." Wildeyes answered shallowly, her eyes brimming with tears as his body went into an involuntary spasm until becoming still, still for the last time.

Snowfeather clenched her teeth together and hissed, "Why… oh Cloudclan why… they never said this would happen! They never said that I would lose my son!"

Sunstar looked at her for a second before bowing his head, "He died in battle, that is all we can ask for." He said, though Snowfeather found no comfort in his words.

"We must burry him." A voice said from the entrance of the cave. Everyone whorled around and Batshadow saw the she cat that he had seen standing on top of the cliff ledge.

"Who are you?" Oakpaw spat to her. The mysterious cat showed no emotion and continued to pad closer to the dead cat. "Ok… if you`re not going to answer us, I`ll make you!" He threatened pacing forward menacingly, but Starflower only put out her tail to stop him. The she cat walked forward and pushed Snowfeather away, there was no harshness in it, just a gentle push.

When she came to the corpse she picked it up and headed back outside in silence, the others followed behind her and watched with great interest as she began to dig a hole, "Wedge, Hedge, and Eagle have terrorized this mountain for moons, they have fighting tactics that neither the tribes nor loners have ever encountered." She whispered hollowly, never looking up from her digging.

"Who. Are. You." Snowfeather demanded slowly, "and what are you doing with my son?" She hissed.

"I am Falcon, and I am burying him." She stated drily. "If I do not, then he will never join Cloudclan." She added, there was another quiet spell as they all watched her drop Hawkpaw into the hole and began to bury him. She looked up suddenly and gave a smile, "Over there, there is your friend and a member of Cloudclan right now, guiding him." She exclaimed, pointing with her tail vigorously.

They all looked behind them, there was nothing but rock, "I think this cat is moon-crazed!" Oakpaw growled, though his eyes were darting around in fear and obvious belief.

Falcon looked at them sadly, "Do you not believe in Cloudclan?" She asked dully.

Starflower nodded, "We do, we come from Smokeclan, Desertclan, Nightclan, and Dayclan, but how do you know about them?" She asked.

"They visit me very often, in the day and in the night, I know you all, you need to get to the other side of the mountain, follow." She said, walking away from the baffled cats. They cast each other nervous looks before stalking forward, all except Snowfeather.


	14. Chapter 14

"Snowfeather, come on!" Oakpaw meowed to Snowfeather.

She shook her head in pure refusal, "I am not leaving my son`s killers alive." She hissed to her traveling companions. Wildeyes felt a singe of pity go through her heart, Snowfeather might be hard to cope with but she was loyal to her family and friends, that was how Nightclan cats were bred, they were bred to take care of each other.

Falcon looked at her emotionlessly, "What will you tell your clan when you go back to your land with no medicine? What will you tell your mother in the elders den, and your blind and deaf father, what will you tell your remaining kits?" She asked mysteriously.

Snowfeather stared at her gapping mouthed, "How, how do you know about my father?" She gasped. Falcon looked at her harder with an unbreakable gaze, "You knew this was all going to happen didn`t you? You knew that Hawkpaw was going to die, you know how this will all end!" She spat in realization. Falcon nodded.

"Your son was never meant to live, but I am afraid that I have only a fragment of knowledge on everything that is soon to happen." She said darkly, her eyes clouding.

Sunstar blinked in surprise, "Who, what are you?" He asked her.

"I am Falcon, as I have already said, and I am a member, or was once of, a member of a Aldaca, a land not far away from here, or was a land, but it is best not to dwell long on the past, we must hurry if we want to escape the fall of night." She said, and that was all she said of her past though Oakpaw still wondered about Aldaca and how it linked to this quest.

This time, when Falcon began to walk, Snowfeather followed.

Gingerpaw met Greycloud in her dreams, his pelt was clean and shimmering and his ribs were hidden beneath his skin to show that he had eaten recently. "Greycloud! I`m here!" She shouted, running to the ex-leader happily.

He looked up to the ginger apprentice with blue eyes and smiled, "Well hello Gingerpaw, would you care for some rabbit? I caught it myself." He asked flicking his tail to the prey he was eating. Gingerpaw`s mouth watered and she nodded hopefully, she reached down and tried to bite into the plump food, but she only tasted air. Greycloud gave a sigh, "That`s the problem, I keep hoping I can give my clan prey, but that`s against Cloudclan and their wishes, I am truly sorry." He apologized.

"It`s all right." Gingerpaw mumbled, "Greycloud, what should I do? Desertclan and Smokeclan are dying, and who knows what is happening to Dayclan and Nightclan." She exclaimed.

"That is why I brought you here, there is only one way to survive until the eight get back, and that`s to unit with Dayclan and Nightclan…" Gingerpaw stared at him in shock, Cricketcloud would never agree to allow his territory to be shared, and Nightcloud was to prideful to admit there was any trouble in his clan, "Now don`t look at me like that, I know what you`re thinking, but trust me, Cricketcloud may be hard headed at times, but he wants the clans to all remain." He said.

Gingerpaw nodded, "But are you sure that Nightcloud will agree?" She asked. Greycloud`s expression darkened and his eyes grew darker.

"Nightcloud will make his own decisions, but one alone cannot stand." He meowed.

Suddenly a smile spread across his scowling muzzle, "I will see you soon though Gingerpaw, I will see you soon. That was the last thing that Gingerpaw saw from him before she was awakened by a prod on the side.

"Gingerpaw! Gingerpaw! Silvercloud`s having her kits!" Mothpaw was hissing to her.

She was on her feet in a second and headed out of her den and into the cool night. The stars were out and for a second Gingerpaw paused and wondered which one was Greycloud, and also which one marked the boundaries between Cloudclan and this Starclan they so desperately depended on for survival. Then another darker, thought shifted through her mind, what had Greycloud meant by I`ll see you soon? Was she going to die? "Gingerpaw, hurry!" The golden furred she cat whispered from behind her and Gingerpaw left her thoughts and entered back into reality.

Three hours later, in the mist of chaos and sickness, four new kits were born to Silverbreeze, a silver she cat with black on the tips of her ears and on her tail named Featherkit after Silverbreeze`s mother in Dayclan. Followed by Emberkit, a healthy ginger she kit who meowed loudly, showing her needle-like kit. Then Rainkit, a black tom that looked exactly like his father if it wasn`t for his one white paw. Finally a pale grey tom named after the recent leader, named Greykit.

Gingerpaw smiled, was that what Greycloud had meant by soon, that he would be reincarnated as a kit? If it was then Greykit would be a great fighter and maybe even leader someday…

Batshadow was awakened by Flacon standing beside him, "You have a mate back in the clans, do you not?" She asked.

He looked at her awkwardly, how, or why, would this cat want to know if he has a mate or not? That was until he remembered that Falcon was wiser than most loners he had ever met. "What is it is Silverbreeze all right? Did she catch the disease?" The horror stricken tom asked.

Falcon only shook her head, "No, but she has given birth to your offspring, and I can say that you are a father of four kits, and I hope that it stays that way." She explained. Batshadow felt his heart sweltering with pride, despite her last comment he was a father.


	15. Chapter 15

Oakpaw walked alongside Falcon, behind him was Bunnytail, Starflower, Batshadow, and Sunstar, trailing in the back was Snowfeather, who had hardly spoken since the death of Hawkpaw. Inside Oakpaw did feel sorry for the grieving mother but the feeling of curiosity was greater than the sorrow. What was Aldaca exactly, and what ties did it have with Falcon? He wasn`t sure, but he planned to find out.

In his short life Oakpaw was known for his constant bickering and complaining, but he also learned that the best way to find things out was to not to speak of the subject specifically, but to speak about what might give him clues to the main question.

"So Falcon, you know your way around these mountains pretty well…" He stated.

Falcon nodded and jumped over another rock, "Yes, I have lived here for a while now." She replied dully.

Sunstar was the next to speak, "What do you mean 'for a while', where`d you live before here?" He asked. Oakpaw felt a little better, he wasn`t the only one who wanted to inquire the mysterious brown and white she cat.

Falcon didn`t answer right away, instead she waited until they reached jumped another slab of brown dirt, Oakpaw gasped when he saw the beautiful sight, his companions had similar reactions. They had made it to the top of the mountain, there was a lush forest, a better one than even the woods in Nightclan territory, behind the woods was a shimmering lake, the sun shone off of its` gorgeous rippling waters. "There is where we must go." Falcon meowed.

Stardapple`s eyes narrowed into slits, "Falcon, if we`re going to be traveling together you need to answer our questions." She ordered. Falcon`s only reply was a dip of her head.

"Tell us about Aldaca, what is it and why aren`t you in it?" Batshadow asked.

"The Aldacans and the Shadians were the two clans before Dayclan, Nightclan, Smokeclan, and Desertclan, but they no longer exist." She muttered in a fluttery, almost foreign, voice. She began the long descent down the mountainside as the questions continued.

"Who did it end?" Sunstar asked.

To Oakpaw`s surprise Falcon chuckled, "Why my dear Sunstar, all things must come to an end and eventually disappear, it`s a matter of life." She answered simply.

"Well… what role did you play in this… Aldaca?" Oakpaw asked.

Falcon fumbled in her steps but managed to regain her footing, "I was the Trainer of Aldaca, second only to Mysticwhisper, the leader, and greater than the Strongs and the Healer." She replied.

Batshadow moved closer to the front and asked, "What is a Trainer?"

"They taught their clan they way of Greaterclan and was highly ranked. Greaterclan, by the way, was our clan of the skies." She answered. There was an eerie pause as this new information settled upon the seven traveling, then Snowfeather spoke for the first time since last night.

"If Aldacans and Shadians have gone extinct a long time ago, before the clans, how is it that you can still be alive?" She questioned. Oakpaw realized that Snowfeather was right, Falcon should have died a long time ago if her clans were before theirs.

That was when Falcon stopped and sighed into the sky heavily before turning around and looking at each cat individually, "I am a Trainer of Aldacan, and I have been for the past hundreds, maybe even thousandths of years, I never age." She stated coldly, "I have outlived everyone I know and hold dear, I have even outlived the dead, I have lived longer than Greaterclan, and they are no more." She hissed the fur on her back rising. She calmed herself before continuing, "Yes, I have cheated, I`ve cheated death." She sighed again.

The astonished group of cats stared at her gapping mouthed, their eyes wide and unblinking at the thought of never dying, "How… how…" Oakpaw stuttered.

Falcon looked at him hard, almost reading his mind, "Before my clan was destroyed I was the last Trainer, and the only way that Trainers can die is if they are murdered, I can never kill myself, never get sick, never feel torture. If I were to have an apprentice I could die, because someone would take my place." She spat, "But I cheated, I had no apprentice, so nobody ever took my place and I remained Trainer, now I will live forever until this Earth dies like my clan under the firm iron grasp of humans!" She shrieked into the air.

Once again she calmed, "I have cheated, I`ve cheated the hand of death for eons, and I hate it, living forever, I want peace! I want to join one of the great sky clans, but I cannot, for Greaterclan is no more and Cloudclan cannot accept me, for Starclan will not permit them." She hissed through clenched teeth and tight eyes. Oakpaw felt his heart drop low into his gut, and the sky above him rattled as if Cloudclan were angry at Falcon for telling the travelers about Aldaca.

She lifted her eyes to the quickly clouding skies and shouted, "I am Falcongrace, the last and only Trainer of Aldaca!" With those words the sky broke and water sliced like razors from the sky, then Oakpaw realized something, they were no longer under Cloudclan skies. This was Starclan territory, and Starclan wasn`t happy with them.

**Elemental: Wow, dramatic much Helper? You know we never even thought about adding this creepy Falcon/Falcongrace until now, and lord knows where Aldaca and Shadian come from!  
Helper: Well, we`re sort of best known for our abnormal twist on things so I had to add some spunk to it.  
Elemental: Ok, hey completely off the subject but… WHO CAUGHT THE FINALE OF LOST?  
Helper: That was a crazy episode!  
Elemental: Yeah I know, they`re living even though their dead and their alive even though they`re not and WOW, the last episode and no answers!  
Helper: INSANITY!  
Elemental: At least Claire and Charlie got back together… BUT COM ON PEOPLE REVIEW! **


	16. Chapter 16

Autumncloud felt awkward walking into Dayclan with Mistycloud by her side. When Gingerpaw first told her about the plan that Greycloud had suggested she had laughed. The thought of Cricketcloud allowing any clan to hunt within their borders was insanity, and the thought that Nightcloud may even join them was even more impossible. Yet here she was, within Dayclan territory, hoping that Cricketcloud would have mercy on Smokeclan and Desertclan.

All of Desertclan and Smokeclan were behind them, Copperkit, oblivious to the dangerous situation they were in, was pouncing on Autumncloud`s tail. "I`ve got you Autumnsong!" Copperkit laughed. He flicked his little paws and his green-blue eyes glittered with play.

There was a streak of dark brown fur and Copperkit went tumbling, "But I`ve got you!" Fireflykit laughed from on top of Copperkit.

Hollowface, father of Fireflykit, came and gentle picked up his kit by the scruff, and Reedclaw picked up Copperkit. The two kits were still giggling when they were carried back to their siblings.

Just then there was a rustling in the undergrowth, Mistycloud and Autumncloud froze as two cats slipped out of the bushes. It was only Redmane and Mossflower, who were sent out earlier to scout out the area. "Autumncloud, a patrol is heading this way!" Redmane panted.

"Maybe they`ll take us to their camp?" Frozenstar, the white and grey Smokeclan deputy put in hopefully.

"Maybe…" Mistycloud muttered. Just then there was a hiss and a patrol consisting of Bluepaw, Whitepaw, Finchsong, Fluffyfur, Poppypaw, Silverglow, and Rainstorm emerged from the brambles that grew along the sides of the woods dirt path.

"What are you doing on Smokeclan territory…and why have you brought two whole clans?" Rainstorm asked, trailing off when he saw the kits hiding under their mothers stomachs.

Mistycloud stepped forward, "We need to see Cricketcloud." She demanded. The patrol looked around at each other for a couple of minutes before nodding, and the two clans followed them into the brush.

"You want what?" Cricketcloud roared from his high perch on a tree limb. Her pelt was shinning and freshly groomed and her clan seemed as healthy as normal. "By what authority do you ask us to take in two, repeat that, two clans?" She spat angrily.

Autumncloud looked up at her with a cold green stare, "By the authority of Cloudclan." She stated slowly allowing the words to seep in thoroughly.

There was a slight pause and Cricketcloud looked over the mangled combined clans and her eyes laid on the kits. Blizzardkit was just stalking closer to the edge of the clustered cats, an identical match to his father Thunderfire. Burninggrass was herding her three kits, Snowkit, Willowkit, and Flamekit with her tail. Cricketcloud looked over to where Lilyfur was standing with Brightkit, Skykit, and Greykit, what could she do? She had always had a weakness for kits.

"From this moment until further notice, Dayclan, Desertclan, and Smokeclan will join as one clan until this sickness is over." She declared.

Starflower wasn`t sure what was more awkward, walking with a cat that should have died years ago, or walking under unknown skies. The rain that had begun three days ago had ended that morning and they had traveled quickly in the rain. The terrain had went from the downhill rocky terrain of the mountain to the lush wildlife of the lake.

"Are we close?" Oakpaw whispered, not wishing to disturb Falcongrace, who had not spoken ever since she shouted her real name to the sky. Starflower gave a shrug and continued to trudge forward, her paws were aching and blood trickled through the cracks on her paws.

The moon shown bright and full above them as they padded along the bank of the lake and Falcon stopped suddenly, "I smell many cat scents mingled here." She stated, pointing with her tail to a fallen log going across the rippling water to a smaller island.

"So…should we cross?" Sunstar asked wearily, not fond of the idea of having to face these other clans.

Falcon nodded and hoped on the log, she lost her footing on the slimy moss but quickly regained her posture. After the seven other cats had crossed they progressed to the center of the island, where they could hear meows and chattering just behind the ferns.

Cautiously Bunnytail stuck her head through the vegetation and could hardly hold back a gasp when she saw the massive amount of cats gathered there. "Dear Cloudclan…" Oakpaw muttered. "What do we do? Just go in there and say, 'hey everyone, you don`t know us but we come from four different clans and they`re deathly ill, so we`d like if you would let us go through your territory and take some glow-rock.'" He hissed.

"Shh…" Starflower said to him.

She turned her attention to the obvious leaders of the clans sitting on a tree, there was a flame colored tom with green eyes. A smaller mottled brown tabby tom with a white muzzle, a blue-grey she cat, and a large white tom with black paws. They were talking to the gathered clans intently and didn`t seem to notice the eight cats watching in the bushes.

"Is this like a gathering that we have at our clans?" Oakpaw whispered.

Sunstar nodded, "It seems like it, but what should we do now?" He answered then asked, ducking his head from the bushes.

"I think we should bed down for the night." Snowfeather muttered. She didn`t wait for a response, instead she stalked away to the log bridge and crossed, the others followed her with weary paws. They headed north in silence and kept walking for what felt like moons until Snowfeather found a place suitable for herself, a large forest full of smells and sounds.

Snowfeather curled up in a knot in the tree roots, her bushy tail brushing her nose and her blue eyes closed. Wildeyes would have much rather found a hotter place to sleep and she knew that Batshadow felt the same, but she decided that this place was as good as any and laid down beside the Nightclan warrior. All the others curled up in the knothole, all except for Falcon.

She looked up to the stars and her eyes filled with tears. Would she ever join the skies, if she did would there ever be anyone there to meet her? For all she knew Greaterclan had ceased to exist and had disappeared along with Aldaca and Shadian.

Thunderfire could feel the sickness drag his paws down, and he could hardly lift the piece of meat that was in his mouth. But he had a duty to do for his clan, and besides him Flufur continued to stay strong even though her body was thin and beaten.

Carrying the fresh kill to the hollow where the diseased cats were made him even sicker, the cats would come out of their dens in slowly dragged steps and often blood dripped from their muzzle. Their voices were hoarse from days and nights of coughing and their eyes were clouded from lack of sleep.

But the thanks that Thunderfire, Bird, and Flufur got wasn`t in their words but in their actions, they would grab their choice of prey and give the hunters a look of pure gratitude. That was enough to keep Thunderfire hunting.

Wildeyes woke up by the sound of a million pounding paws, around her her companions were also woken up from the startle.

"Do you smell something Firestar?" A toms voice asked. Another voice answered that question, "Intruders!" It hissed.

Just then a golden brown tabby tom with amber eyes broke through the brambles. He was followed by a dark ginger she cat, a dark brown tabby tom, and a white she cat with blue eyes. "What are you doing on Thunderclan territory?" Dark brown tom hissed to the now standing cats.

"Run!" Oakpaw screeched before darting off, the others followed his example just as more Thunderclan warriors and apprentices came to where they had been sleeping.

Wildeyes could hear the pounding of paws behind her and sped up as much as she could using all the skills she had learned in Desertclan and on the mountain. The pounding got softer and softer and by the time she reached a road it had all but disappeared. "Hello?" She called out. There was no answer.

_**(In Thunderclan camp)**_

Firestar was pacing back and forth, he had sent out another patrol to see if the intruders were still in Thunderclan, but they had not come back yet. Just then the gorse tunnel rattled and Dustpelt paraded in, "Firestar look who we found!" He shouted to the leader.

Behind him a small butter-cream colored tom with dark brown eyes tripped into camp. A long scratch wound winded up from his neck to his eye and was spurting blood out and making a puddle on the ground. Jayfeather would have to look at him.

"Who are you?" Firestar demanded.

The tom managed a crooked smile and feeling that he had nothing to lose cracked a smart retort, "I`m obviously not you, and thank Cloudclan for that." Dustpelt whacked him over the head with his paw and the tom gasped.

"Who. Are. You.?" Firestar demanded again.

"I am Oakpaw, Oakpaw of Smokeclan."


	17. Chapter 17

**'There is only one ending, everything before that is just progress.'  
-Jacob (on LOST)**

Rainkit was sick, Gingerpaw could see that and she knew that the older medicine cats Morningdove and Silentecho could sense it too. But none of them said anything. The black tom was becoming more sluggish and was always tired, not a good sign.

There was a growing panic inside Gingerpaw at the growing illness of Rainkit, for one how was the disease spreading? Could the eight get back in time to save him? Would he live? All these questions and he had absolutely no answers, Greycloud had not spoken to her since the night the four kits were born, and if Greycloud really was Greykit she doubted he would ever talk to her at all.

Gingerpaw was staring at the four new kits, who had been taken outside while their mother slept by Featherpelt who was overjoyed being able to see her grand-kits, and Stormpelt watched from a distance, being the uncle he too was proud of the four. Even though Rainkit was lying open mouthed in the sand, hardly breathing and wasting no energy, but the relatives seemed not to notice the kits problem.

Greykit (of Dayclan) was playing with Copperkit, Creamkit, and Firekit(of Smokeclan), and the other kits were also playing as one united clan instead of four separate cats.

In fact, Wolfkit, Streamkit (child of Honeyeyes), Willowkit, Flamekit, and Yarrowkit were playing clan-fights but with Wolfkit, Flamekit, and Willowkit leaders of Thunderclan, Riverclan, and Shadowclan, and the other two leaders of Desertclan and Smokeclan. As if the rivalries between the four clans had never existed.

The only kit, besides the four kits to young to play, not taking part of the fun was Moonkit, who had never been the same since the death of his sister Heatherkit. Cloudpelt was strolling pass the nursery and Gingerpaw thought that she had grown…plumper in the pass moon, but Gingerpaw wasn`t sure.

Warriors and apprentices of different clans were actually sharing tongues with each other, but Gingerpaw doubted that this sort of clan alliance would last very long, as soon as the eight returned everything would go back to normal, Duskclaw would come back and the clans would continue their hate filled fighting sprees. Duskclaw returning would be nice…

**(Over the mountain, by the lake of Taken Land)**

Wildeyes ran blindly through the night, alone and afraid of the dangers in this unknown land. She belonged in the desert, not in a forest! Yet she continued to run through the brambles and bushes she ran, until she tripped over a tree root and fell down with a yelp. There she lay panting, the full moon made light string in from the leafy canopy above her.

She thought about lying there, just lying there forever, but she knew that was impossible and she knew that she had to find her friends.

No! Only Batshadow was her friend, the others were just, were just, they were just enemies that were keeping her company, and helping her through all this for a common goal, to save their clans. Maybe… Delta was right and they needed each other more than they knew, yes Delta was right. They needed each other, just like the night needed stars, or a queen needs her kit like Snowfeather needed Hawkpaw. Or even how a cat needs a clan, like Falcon, all alone, with no clan, nothing…

There under the night sky Wildeyes felt peaceful and she understood, that Cloudclan had no control over them, that Starclan could kill her right here, but they couldn`t something was stopping them. She understood that things were meant to end and that there was only one ending in life. The end, that was it THE end, though there has been many endings in life none of them had been THE end, they had just been there, they had been progress. This wasn`t THE end, this was only the beginning.

As Snowfeather was realizing a brown tabby cat was sitting up on one of the high branches of a tree, his clouded blue eyes glimmering with untold happiness.

**(In the lake)**

Batshadow spurted helplessly, he was stupid to have tried to swim away in the lake, the current was strong and he was drowning. Just then he felt a powerful tug on his scruff and he was dragged back to dry land, he looked up and saw that it was Falcon who had come to his aid.

"Desertclan cats shouldn`t try to swim." She meowed. He coughed but managed to grin a little at this remark.

**(In Thunderclan camp)**

Oakpaw limped around in the small den he was being forced to stay in while he was being held prisoner. "This is worst then the game kits play where they shove a beetle in a hole and have to guard it! Except I`m the beetle!" He hissed angrily.

A blind tabby grey tom named Jayfeather had checked the wounds that Dustpelt had inflicted upon him, Oakpaw had thought about jumping the medicine cat, but he had collapsed. Now his pelt was covered in sticky cobwebs instead of the sweet smelling Lavender-plant that was used in his clan for battle wounds.

Pausing at the exit he looked outside to where the golden brown tabby tom that was guarding him, if Oakpaw remembered correctly his name was Lionblaze. "What a dumb name." He spat out loud causing Lionblaze to look at him with amber eyes. "You heard me, I said you have a dumb name!" Oakpaw stated slowly, he couldn`t help it, it was his nature to be mocking.

Lionblaze`s fur bristled and he showed his large teeth and unsheathed claws, Oakpaw didn`t back down instead he matched Lionblaze`s weapons with his own equal. The two stared each other down amber on brown, after a couple minutes the larger tom lowered his gaze, though he gave a threatening hiss. Oakpaw`s gaze never quavered, he from Dayclan, he would not back down, he had been taught not to.

"Who are you?" Lionblaze asked steadily.

"Oakpaw. Oakpaw of Smokeclan." Oakpaw repeated though he knew that Lionblaze meant something deeper than that. Who was he? At times he thought he knew, then other times he didn`t, it was scary that he didn`t know himself as he should, personality wise, but he always got over it.


	18. Chapter 18

**'There is only one ending, everything before that is just progress.'  
-Jacob (on LOST)**

**(In Thunderclan camp)**

"So tell me about Smokeclan." Firestar meowed to Oakpaw. Three cats named Cloudtail, Greystripe, and Cinderheart had taken him outside into the camp clearing, where other cats were eyeing him curiously, why he needed three warriors to just go outside he had no clue.

Oakpaw rolled his eyes he came here to help his clans, not have a discussion about his clan. "Well there`s four clans, Smokeclan is the fastest and they live on an open moor, then there`s Desertclan, who of course lives in a desert. Dayclan lives by two connecting streams that spate the watersheds, they`re the fattest, and finally Nightclan who lives in a sort of forest like place." He sighed flatly. "Other than that our clans are almost exactly the same." He added.

Firestar nodded silently, Oakpaw looked around, and the sun was beating down ferociously, the heat made Oakpaw close his eyes. As soon as he did a vision flashed.

_There was a tom that looked almost exactly like him, talking to a black she cat with bright green eyes; two kits tumbled around them playfully. The vision took place in what seemed like the Thunderclan camp, except it wasn`t, there were cats he had never seen talking and eating with each other. His double nuzzled the she cat and looked tenderly at the kits that looked back up at him, one with brown eyes and the other kit had green._

_ Suddenly an eerie silence over took the camp and the tom looked up in confusion, there was a cloud, a black evil cloud coming towards them. His eyes narrowed and slowly expanded in fear, he shouted something to the she cat and she shook her head. The two kits ran behind her but were quickly grabbed by a large light brown tabby she cat. They cried out but the black she cat nodded desperately and the other cat took them away. _

_ His double stood staring at the cloud and his mate stood beside him, other cats were gathering quickly. The cloud came closer and closer, until it was right in front of the line of cats. Then the lightning began to strike down, and other shadowy black cats formed on top of a hill… _

_ An enormous grey and white tom stepped forward, his mouth parted in a hideous howl, showing fanglike teeth, the other cats in the storm line erupted in a howl too. The other line matched it with a roar of their own, and the two sides charged each other. The darker cats murdered so many of the first line; they fell with sickening thuds, crunches, and screaming. _

_ Time flashed again where the first cats had fallen in battle there were now massive trees, from the trees a few cats emerged, their eyes clouded and searching, always searching…_

Oakpaw blinked awake to fine that Firestar was calling his name curiously, "Are you all right Oakpaw?" He asked worriedly.

He nodded, in reality he had never felt worst, "I… I think I need to lie down for a little." He gasped. Firestar nodded and Oakpaw struggled back to his den, where he collapsed in a blurred daze.

A large tabby brown tom appeared in front of him, "You have seen." He stated with pupil-less blue eyes. Oakpaw nodded weakly and the large tom smiled. Oakpaw gasped in pain and Watcher closed Oakpaw`s eyes, "When you wake, you must leave and return to your friends." He whispered to him. Oakpaw didn`t answer.

**(In the sick-hollow)**

Duskclaw carried a bundle of soaking wet moss over to Smokefang, who was barely holding on to the sliver of life still in him. If only the fever would break, then he would have a chance of recovery that was all Duskclaw could hope for. Hope, she had given up on hope a long time ago, as soon as Greycloud and Nightcrow died she had lost all hope.

Silentecho and Reedclaw had come to help her, for once Reedclaw didn`t argue, maybe seeing the dying cats hurt him more than Duskclaw knew. Smokefang looked up at her with glazed yellow eyes, a little bit of blood dripped down the side of his mouth, but he smiled.

"I had the weirdest dream Duskclaw. I dreamt that… that I was a, a warrior but healthy and…and… I…" He began before his body was caught in a coughing fit, Duskclaw tried to silence him but Smokefang shook his head, "There was a battle and trees… trees were dead…dead cats, it was sad but beautiful." He finished, closing his eyes as the sleeping medicine that Duskclaw had put in the water seeped into his system.

Duskclaw gave a weary smile, what a odd dream Smokefang had.

**(Back to a forest…)**

Wildeyes laid there, the brambles wrapped around her body and slowly choking her with every move she made. A rustling in the bushes made her look up and she was surprised to see Bunnytail and Sunstar looking at her, "Are you all right?" Sunstar asked worriedly.

She shook her head and the bramble`s hold tightened. "The brambles are chocking her!" Bunnytail shouted and Sunstar looked at her in genuinely concern.

Bunnytail walked over to her and began to break the ties with her teeth, Sunstar caught on and began to help her too. When the last branch was cut Wildeyes gasped for air and fell down, there she lay, breathing deeply for a while before she stood up with a look like Sunstar had never seen in her eyes.

"We have to save Oakpaw." She meowed determinedly. Her two friends looked at her confusedly, what had happened to Oakpaw that they didn`t know of?

**(Back to the lake)**

Starflower and Snowfeather walked beside Falcon and Batshadow, who they had found drying out from a swim in the lake. Falcon stopped suddenly and looked to the left, where the forest trees were. She nodded and looked to her companions, "We must go save Oakpaw." She said suddenly.

"What do you mean save?" Snowfeather hissed.

Falcon rolled her eyes, "It seems that our friend has been taken by Thunderclan, and we need him now." She stated, darting suddenly to the trees. The three others followed her quickly.


	19. Chapter 19

**'There is only one ending, everything before that is just progress.'  
-Jacob (on LOST)**

**(In Dayclan)**

"Desertclan, please gather under the great-rock." Autumncloud shouted from the top of the large gathering rock. Desertclan did gather, but Smokeclan and Dayclan cats also came along. "Despite these hard times we must carry on with our warrior life, and right now I would like to appoint two new warriors." All the apprentices pricked their ears expectantly, with the exception of Squirrelpaw and Ravenpaw, who had just become apprentices.

"Snowpaw and Hailpaw, you are more than ready to become warriors, Snowpaw I have spoken to Falconswoop and Hailpaw I am certain that if Flufur was here she would want you to receive your warrior name too. Do you accept the responsibilities?" She asked the white she cats. Snowpaw nodded enthusiastically while her more serious sister gave a quick flick of her head.

"Then Snowpaw stepped please step forward." Snowpaw did. "Then before all of Cloudclan and all Desertclan I give you your warrior name, Snowleap." Autumncloud bent down and licked her forehead before stepping back. All of Desertclan cheered her new name, Snowleap, Snowleap, Snowleap! They all repeated.

When the cheering dyed down Autumncloud began again, "Hailpaw please step forward… before all of Cloudclan and all Desertclan I give you your warrior name, Hailfire." She finished licking Hailfire`s forehead just like she had down to her sister. The clan called out her name and Hailfire blushed, unlike her hyper sister she was quieter and more entitled to being calm.

Just then Cricketcloud, who had been watching on the sidelines, jumped up to where Autumncloud sat, "Dayclan would also like to make a new warrior…" At the end of the ceremony there were two new warriors, Hawkpaw and Gingerpaw had become Hawkwing and Gingerblaze.

**(Back to Thunderclan (where Oakpaw is going insane)…)**

Oakpaw paced around tiredly, he`d been pacing around for a while now and he was sure that he would leave a trail in the floor. Lionblaze was once again the cat who was watching him, though he did a horrible job on the task.

Looking outside he saw the beautiful night sky and the twinkling stars. Normally he would have thought that they were gorgeous, but he knew now that they weren`t just fire in the sky, but after the vision he had he had ever known before. The stars were where Starclan were, and the clouds were Cloudclan.

The vision from ancient times had given him more than just great insight, but also his hearing was acute. But he couldn`t test his new 'powers' trapped in a bramble cage and it was driving the apprentice out of his mine!

Clinging onto his last shred of sanity he began to think of a way to escape, maybe he could dart out of the den and out of camp. Maybe… or perhaps he could try to fight all the cats in Thunderclan, Smokeclan cats were probably better at fighting anyway. Oakpaw quickly discarded those plans and decided that in time he would escape… hopefully. He closed his eyes tiredly before falling into a light sleep.

Oakpaw was awoken by low whispers; sitting up tiredly Oakpaw blinked his brown eyes. The voice was coming from behind his den and the noise was seeping through the cracks in the brambles. Suddenly very interested he placed an ear on the back wall, he could place out the voices of Lionblaze, Jayfeather, and a more high pitched voice that came from an apprentice named Dovepaw.

"Why do you want Jayfeather, I`m supposed to be guarding Oakpaw." Lionblaze hissed lowly.

There was a shuffling before Jayfeather spoke, "Starclan came to me tonight, and they warned me about our powers being overthrown." He spat back. Oakpaw blinked, if Lionblaze had a power it would be complete stupidity, he thought spitefully to himself.

"What did Starclan say exactly?" Dovepaw inquired.

More shuffling. "They said _'Rubble and Falcon shall meet, two lives destroyed, one alive one dead, and in the end the lion, jay, and dove will bow to the clouds, and even the stars may fade.'_" Jayfeather repeated darkly. Falcon must have meant Falcongrace, and Rubble could be… could be anyone.

"So what does it mean?" Dovepaw asked.

"It means that unless something is coming to the clans that even Starclan can`t prevent…" Jayfeather declared.

"Oakpaw!" Lionblaze gasped in realization.

Oakpaw decided that there was no time to wait around, nobody was guarding him, and he could run. He ran. Darting out of the den he leapt over a fallen tree that had fallen sometime before he had arrived. He heard Lionblaze shout from behind him, but he didn`t stop to hear what he was saying. Jumping through the bramble camp barrier he was stopped by Birchfall, who was guarding the entrance.

"Excuse me!" Oakpaw meowed, leaping over the startled light brown tabby tom.

He heard more cats waking up and ran faster, as fast as his wounded leg would allow him, just then he ran into a powerful body. He looked up in a daze to the surprised face of Snowfeather.


	20. Chapter 20

"Oakpaw?" Snowfeather asked the apprentice, who scrambled upon his paws.

"No, it`s Cloudclan, come on!" Oakpaw hissed hoping to his feet and pushing the larger cat forward, "Come on, Thunderclan`s after me!" He added as Snowfeather began to protest. He could hear the Thunderclan cats pushing through the underbrush after him. Snowfeather nodded and darted forward as a white blur. Oakpaw followed closely behind.

They continued to run until they ran into a dead-end, or in this case, a cliff, "you have to be kidding me!" Oakpaw muttered, desperately trying to climb the wall of rock with no prevail.

"Horse-kick!" Snowfeather hissed as she whorled around to find seven Thunderclan cats glowering at them. Oakpaw recognized Lionblaze and Brambleclaw instantly and his eyes widened.

Snowfeather hissed and jumped forward in a frenzy of claws and teeth, her white fur was quickly hidden by half of the warriors, the other three advanced toward Oakpaw. "Fish-bone!" He hissed as he turned to face them, the fur on his back standing up when he saw Lionblaze.

Lionblaze leapt onto him with a yowl and Oakpaw felt a sudden burning slice across his back, in anger he batted him with an unsheathed paw, but his blow was blocked off by a head-butt in the chest. While trying to catch his breath Lionblaze whacked him over the head and his vision blurred, and that brown tabby cat was there again.

_"Well hello young one." Watcher smiled with his glazed blue eyes. His smile faded when he saw the beaten look on Oakpaw`s face. "What`s wrong?" He asked. _

_"I…I`m confused, who are you and why can`t I kick Lionblaze`s tail?" Oakpaw stammered, speaking the seldom truth._

_Watcher chuckled, "Well Oak, it`s simple, he`s protected by a prophecy and, quite frankly, you`re not." He answered simply. Oakpaw rolled his eyes, as he did so often. "But you are protected, protected in ways that you may never understand." He added. Oakpaw opened his moth to protest but Watcher put up his tail and Oakpaw silenced. _

_"Look at Snowfeather, do you think that she`s fighting for herself, she`s fighting for you, she thinks of you like a son since Hawkpaw`s… accident. Then Delta, she protected you from the night, and then you have all Cloudclan and the four clans backing you up." He finished, what was he talking about? Oakpaw thought to himself. _

_"So… what does it mean?..." Oakpaw asked. _

_This time it was Watcher`s turn to roll his eyes, "Just go out there and do what you do best." Oakpaw raised an eyebrow, "Just be yourself." He sighed, "Really Oak… just go out there and help Snowfeather with what she does best…" Watcher stated before the dream wore off._

"She`s dead!" Brambleclaw shouted. Lionblaze looked up and Oakpaw had the horrible feeling that it was Snowfeather, but the deputy was standing over a dark cream she cat with darker stripes. "Rosepetal`s dead!" He meowed again, picking up the sliced corpse by her scruff.

"Back to Thunderclan!" Brambleclaw muttered through her fur. The warriors retreated with hateful glances at the two, "We`ll be back!" He spat out to the two.

When the last cat's tail disappeared Oakpaw turned to Snowfeather, "What were you thinking? You killed one of them?" He screamed, "great, now they`re going to hate us more than they do now!" He added, giving Snowfeather a hard glare.

"Well it wasn`t like I meant to kill her!" Snowfeather bristled back. They hissed at each other until Snowfeather broke the tension, "Do you hear that?" She asked, her ears twitching in attention. Oakpaw listened to the direction Snowfeather was listening to, there were yowls and growls heading their way. "OK, we need to RUN! The rest of our group should be over this gorge!" Snowfeather yelped, running alongside the gorge.

Oakpaw followed behind her as fast as he could, but he was stopped by a brown paw blocking his way. _'Where are you going?'_ Watcher yawned, showing his pointy white teeth.

"I`m running!" Oakpaw yelped back, trying to get around the solid built tom.

_'I can see that, but why are you running?' _He asked. Oakpaw`s mouth dropped open and he blinked in disbelief.

"Why am I running? Why am I running? Because I`m going to be killed by a bunch of enraged mouse-brained, horse-kicked, fish-boned Thunderclan cats!" Oakpaw meowed, his voice rising higher and higher as he continued on with his woes.

Watcher cracked his neck and frowned, _'I didn`t think you`d run away, I thought you`d stay and fight.'_ He whispered, maybe he had chosen the wrong cat, maybe it would have been smarter to choose hard-willed Snowfeather, she`d fight… Oakpaw stared at him with startled eyes. _'But I suppose that it is not time yet…'_ He trailed off.

"OK, yeah, it`s not time for whatever you want, now let me go!" He yelped. Watcher sighed and lifted his paw, Oakpaw darted away. Watcher turned around and saw the patrol running towards him, they couldn`t see him, but he could see them…

_'Not yet…'_ He smiled, closing his eyes and focusing hard on what he wanted. When he reopened his eyes a large bramble barrier separated the Thunderclan cats from Oakpaw and Snowfeather, but it wouldn`t stop them for long. _'Soon Oakpaw, soon you have to fight.' _He thought to himself, smiling as he heard confused yowls from the Thunderclan warriors

**(In Starclan)**

"This is impossible, how is it that he was able to use his powers?" Yellowfang hissed from beside the pool she was sitting beside. "They were taken away years ago!" She added distastefully.

The blue-silver she-cat beside her nodded in concern, "We have doubted him, he and Oakpaw are an alliance that we never expected." Bluestar hissed. There was a chuckle from the tree spotted hill and she looked up to see a bright white tom with softer yellow spots splattered across his face and flank.

Yellowfang`s fur bristled warningly, "What are you doing here Day?" She spat to the tom, who stalked closer to the two she-cats.

He shrugged his white shoulders, "Just looking at my old territory, and maybe my new territory…" He answered simply, looking around at the beautiful lush terrain, "Like what you did to Starclan, though I must say that I prefer the clouds." He yawned, flexing his powerful muscles.

"This is not your territory Day!" Bluestar growled warningly, her eyes never moving from his almost glowing pelt. "It never will be." She put in after a moment's pause.

"If I remember correctly it isn`t yours either." He replied calmly. Yellowfang hoped at the first Dayclan leader with spite in her eyes, Day simply stepped away from the former medicine cat, which landed a mouse-whisker away from him. "I must say that I would like it if you didn`t attack me every time you see me. You`re worst than Thunder, Wind, Shadow, and River I believe." Day said humorously.

"They have more sense than you!" Bluestar meowed to the handsome tom. He shrugged again and closed his large emerald-green eyes. His feathery tail held up high and his gleaming fur waving with the wind.

He stretched his legs, "We could avoid a fight if you will just let Rose go…" He stated, Bluestar snarled and stalked forward.

"You have no right to come here and ask for her!" Yellowfang barked back.

"You have no right to keep Rose away from her clan!" Day retorted. Day began to fade into space and time, and by the time Bluestar had jumped for him he had faded completely.


	21. Chapter 21

"Nightclan is coming!" Dawnpaw shouted, running into camp with Mossflower by her side. Firefur looked up from where she was laying, her eyes were getting older as she could barely make out the two cats that had been sent out on patrol, but her hearing was still acute.

Cricketcloud was the first to speak above the muffled voices of the cats, "What do they want?" She asked, more than willing to fight if the situation demanded it.

Mossflower answered, "They said that Cloudclan spoke to them saying that all the clans must form together and they were wondering if they could ally with Dayclan." She explained, and Autumncloud and Mistycloud stood up and walked over to where Cricketcloud was standing.

"Tell them they can." She ordered and Dawnpaw sprinted out of the camp. Another wonder that only Cloudclan could have bestowed upon them, Nightstar actually swallowing her pride to unite with the other three clans, even though she had only asked for Dayclan… But pushing that thought aside Cricketcloud was in for another surprise.

Instead of Nightstar coming through the reed barrier, it was the big brown deputy, Thorneyes, in the lead. Her head was hung low, another odd gesture on Nightclan`s normally high-strung attitudes. "Cricketcloud… Autumnsong, or is it Autumncloud now, and Mistycloud." She said, dipping her head to the other leaders. In a moment Cricketcloud realized that this wasn`t Thorneyes speaking, it was a solemn new leader, still mourning over the death of a leader. Nightcloud must have died.

"Nightclan comes to you in hope for unity in the clans, Nightcloud has been killed by the disease and I am now Thorncloud." She said, confirming what Cricketcloud had already predicted.

Cricketcloud watched as more Nightclan cats trickled into camp, their population was low with only six warriors and five apprentices, three queens and six kits, with two elders. Not counting the new deputy, whoever that was, and Snowfeather and Hawkpaw. Of course the medicine cat and medicine cat apprentice was there also, but were hideously thin. Actually, all the cats in Nightclan were thin, their bones could be counted through their pelt and their eyes were hollow, either from mourning for their old leader, or the quickly expanding disease.

Cricketcloud nodded and the Nightclan cats gathered into the camp…which seemed smaller with such a vast amount of cats. "We are now all united…and we have filled Cloudclan`s desires." Autumncloud said, and everyone in camp bowed their heads out of respect.

(0000)

Duskclaw was sicker than before, her paws dragged across the ground, and odd hallucinations came to her in the day, and in the night. Patches of her fur was missing and her bones jutted out of her pelt, with glazed over eyes she had a ghostly appearance and she had almost given up taking care of the sick cats. Out of the many in the sick-hollow only about three were saved, the others were soon to face a painful fate. The small amount of prey Bird, Thunderfire, and Flufur brought was hardly enough to feed everyone, and Duskclaw could hardly remember the last time she ate.

Today though, Silentecho and Reedclaw came to her with some unpleasant news, "Duskclaw, we have been thinking…" Reedclaw said, not really wanting to say the unpleasant news. But Silentecho couldn`t because he had been in a fire while he was a kit, which made his vocal cords strained and his voice raspy.

"Yes?" Duskclaw asked painfully, putting down the herbs she was organizing, not that any of them could help.

Duskclaw shuffled his paws, "We think that we need to start feeding Dark-root." He said in a hushed voice. Duskclaw looked at him in shock, Dark-root was a black root that had venomous parasites in it, you die before you have a chance to calculate what you had ate. It was used long ago as a last resort.

"No, if Cloudclan wants to take a cats life they will, we don`t need to help them." She said, stomping her paw on the ground. Silentecho and Reedclaw gave each other uneasy glances, but said nothing more on the subject. As soon as they left Duskclaw let out a sigh, she knew that the two were probably right in their idea, but Duskclaw would never take another cats life, even if the cat was sick and in pain.

(000)

Snowfeather and Oakpaw had made it back to the group and after a lot of explaining, Batshadow knew that their duty had just become an even harder task. Not to mention that they had lost Bunnytail, Wildeyes, and Sunstar and they didn`t even know if they had been captured…

"We should just go home, we have no clue where this plant is, and there`s no chance that we can survive here with Thunderclan as an enemy!" Snowfeather hissed. There were a few startled meows and Starflower meowed in protest, but in reality, they all knew that her words were true and there was nothing they could do, now that they were split and Oakpaw was injured.

Falcon stepped up, her eyes blazing in anger at Snowfeather`s words, "We are not leaving!" She meowed and they all looked at her. "Don`t you understand? All these trials, everything, was laid out by Starclan to stop you, you`re falling right into their trap!" She meowed sternly, horrified that they would give-in.

"Listen, the only easy day was yesterday, and that will be that way for as long as we`re out here, I can`t guarantee that we`ll all get back, but I can promise you all that we will get the Night-glow-plant, even if it means we kill for it." Falcon said. They all looked at the brown and white cat, the passion of her words burning in her eyes gave them new hope, and with that restored, they knew they could carry on with their mission.

Oakpaw nodded, "Then what are we waiting for, let`s go get that plant!" He said, they all nodded and were about to move on when Starflower was knocked off her paws by a grey bundle of fur. "Riverclan!" Oakpaw yelped, remembering the name from when he was a prisoner. But Thunderclan was mingled in with Riverclan and Oakpaw felt his heart snag in his throat.

"Into the water!" Falcon shouted. That may be fine for her, she being able to swim like a fish, but for Batshadow, who had lived in the desert and drank out of puddles, it was insanity! But they had no choice as Snowfeather yanked the warrior off of Starflower and ran into the lake.

Batshadow reluctantly followed, but a good nip on his hind leg by a black cat made him jump in without hesitation.


	22. Chapter 22

Snowfeather couldn't do this, she couldn't swim, and hardly any cats could! Well…Dayclan cats knew how to swim, but Sunstar and Bunnytail weren't with them so that didn't matter, then Falcon was like a fish in the water, her tail actually paddling like her paws were. But Snowfeather wasn't like Falcon and she was from Nightclan. What could she do but try and keep her head up above the water.

Somehow, above all the water rushing in her ears she heard more splashing behind her, it must be Riverclan or Thunderclan, maybe both. Of course they could swim. Why wouldn't they swim? Unfair.

Someone grabbed her tail and Snowfeather yanked around, raking her claws down the face of a mottled grey tom. Wrong move. The sudden movement caused her to go under the water, forcing her eyes open she saw only the dim light of the sun in the murky water. She managed to resurface and with heavy paws she swam towards a large clump of brambles, a sudden currant forced her back underwater and she came up inside the brambles, which were hollowed out like a den if you got into it from the underneath.

"Thank you Cloudclan." She whispered, grabbing hold to the sticks with her paws to keep balance. Suddenly there was a splashing sound and Snowfeather looked through a hole in the bracken to see two cats swimming by. Holding perfectly still she waited for them to pass, but suddenly, the branch she was holding onto broke, flinging her underwater. "Help!" She yelped before she sunk to the bottom and the current threw her against a rock underwater.

This was it, even if she could get above the water, even if she didn't drown, the two Riverclan cats surely saw her and would come after her. It was the end of her. Water pulled her under a rock, where she was pressed up against the rock with a large jutting top, she was going to drown. She was going to die. This really was the end. She knew it was as soon as she felt her brain begin to fuzz over, as soon as she saw her son killed, as soon as she could only hear and taste the freezing cold water…

_Snow opened her blue eyes slowly, it wasn't the first time she had opened them but it was still such a new experience to her. Standing above her was her bright ginger sister, Gold, and laying further back in the corner with her tabby ginger mother, coughing with a horribly, was her twin, Ice, a pure white tom. _

_Ice had been deathly ill with a rare disease. He had to stay away from the nursery and his mother and siblings so that he could begin the long road to recovery without sickening the other cats in Dayclan. The medicine cat said that if it had not been for one of the senior warriors finding Glow-plant that he'd probably wouldn't have survived._

"_Mama said that if we were nice to the warriors and elders we can go outside." Gold whispered, her green eyes sparkling with excitement. Snow looked back at her mother for approval, Mouse nodded back and Snow stretched, ready to do some exploring. It wasn't until they were away from the nursery though that Gold confronted her on what she really wanted to do. _

_Bouncing up to her smaller sister Gold told her her plan, "We should go out into the forest and go hunting!" She exclaimed happily as if it was that simple. "Are you in?" She then asked. Snow blinked in surprise, kits weren't allowed outside of the camp. She didn't know what the punishment was exactly, but it wouldn't be good. "We __**won't **__get caught." Gold rehearsed. Snow wasn't sure._

_Snow looked around, Oak and his mate, Night, were the only older cats in camp that Snow could see, and they were to focused on their two kits, Wolf and Fox, who were a moon older than Snow, Gold, and Ice. Everything seemed safe…and Gold promised that they wouldn't get caught. Oh how many times had Gold told her that and then they found each other in trouble? Shuffling her paws she rolled the thoughts over it. "Alright." She finally sighed, and Gold gave a little cry of joy. _

_They walked along the lake, laughing and catching small black-shelled beetles. "Ew…this one smells horrible!" Gold laughed, backing away from a small green one that looked sort of like a leaf. "Haha, stink bug!" She then added, bouncing forward happily; taking special care to avoid the bug. _

"_I think that this was one of our best ideas, right Gold?" She asked. There wasn't a reply, after a few minutes Snow turned around, "Gold?" She asked her voice small and squeaky. Standing behind her, with a horribly bleeding Gold in his jaws, was a mysterious black tom with even blacker eyes. "Gold…?" Snow whimpered, backing up even more. _

_The mystery tom threw Gold, or what use to be Gold, into the lake, where she disappeared for a second before bubbling back up, turning the water around her an ugly red. The tom took a threatening step forward, and Snow did the only thing she could, she darted into the lake. The tom hissed and ran until his paws touched the cold lake water; he stopped and spat, before reluctantly walking away. _

_Snow tried to keep her head above water, she tried so hard, but she couldn't, she was too weak, too weak to take on the power of the lake. Her head slowly slipped under the lapping waves, and eventually her paws stopped struggling, and she slipped down to the bottom of nothingness. _

Snowfeather gasped, spitting out water as her body rasped in involuntary spasms. Who was Snow? She wondered, wait…what was she talking about? Snow was something that fell from the sky, 'snow' was the beginning of her name, and snow was cold. But somewhere in the back of her mind she felt as if she felt as if Snow was something more. Then who was Gold and who was Ice? She wondered, but quickly shook the thought of. They were no one, that's who they were.

She looked to the sky with blurry eyes; the sun was setting behind some pine trees, and casted eerie, elongated shadows along the ground. Snowfeather shivered. Looking straight ahead she gasped, there was something glowing. Looking closer she saw that it was a plant. A glowing plant… 


	23. Chapter 23

It was really the end, the end for the clans, the end for everything, in Thorncloud's weary mind he thought. Just recently they had, Desertclan, had lost Rainkit, he knew he shouldn't feel sad, it wasn't one of his clan's kits. But for some reason it still hurt him to think of a dead kit. But, at least there was another queen in DesertClan, a new one by the name of Cloudpelt. He questioned who the father was though, for no one in DesertClan had claimed rights of the kit. Odd but not uncommon, many fathers prefered to keep their identities sealed until their kits birth.

They had lost more cats to the sick hollow and Thorncloud knew they couldn't take much more of this, or as Cricketcloud said, "We are waist deep in poisoned water." That was putting it mildly. What had happened to the eight cats they sent out? Were they alive? Had they found the glow-plant and were coming back? Or had they parished under some foregin skies? Thorncloud prayed that it wasn't the latter.

"Thorncloud, we have a problem." Sandfire called out, his almost white eyes glowing in the darkness of the den. Of course they had a problem. "There's a pack of wolves heading this way, brought on by the smell of death." What else was new? There were always wolves in these parts, nothing NightClan wasn't use to seeing. "We have reason to believe that the pack is the Midnight-Riding Pack." Sandfire then said grimly. Thorncloud snapped his head up. It couldn't be, they had chased that pack off years ago, when he was a kit! He remembered that because so many were killed in the onslaughter...Midnight-Riding Pack was the worst pack of them all, no doubt they would kill the sick cats, there was no doubt in Thorncloud's mind of that. What they needed now was a merical. What they needed now...was that Night-glow plant.

* * *

Duskclaw couged heavily, her eyes rolled up in the back of her head; Bird watched on helplessly as the medicine cat's painful death began. He wished there was something he could do, he wished he could ease the pain from her. But he never felt so helpless. Sighing he closed his eyes tight, but how could he block out the horrible sounds? Flufur, also, had been infected, and Thunderstrike was no better off. Somehow though, Bird remained fine and uneffected through all of this. Somehow, he was the soul survivor of this; as even Reedclaw, who had immunaty, died under the cold unseen claws of the raging sickness.

"Great CloudClan, why?" He whispered. Up in the skies, CloudClan was saying the samething, only instead of saying 'Oh dear CloudClan' they were whispering the name of an even greater clan, greater than StarClan even. The clan of the skies that was greater than any other and always would be. They were wispering their hopes to none other than GreaterClan. GreaterClan heard their pleas.

* * *

Batshadow cried out in pain, the bone of his hind leg stuck out from his skin in a sickly matter, and he was sure that he would die from either pain, or blood loss. Forcing his way up the sandy bank he noticed with horror that his front paw was twisted the wrong way. His thoughts clouded back to Hawkpaw, and his bloody, matted body laying on the ground, his life blood not spilling on the ground, but actually swelling up inside of him. Was that was what was happening in Batshadow? Was he going to die like Hawkpaw? It looked like this.

Gasping from the pain he collasped, eyes rolled in the back of his head and blood dripping out of his ears slowly before trickling down into his eyes and making his vision blurred and stinging. "Great Cloudclan!" He grunted.

That was when the natural pain killers in his body fully wore off.

"Great Cloudclan!" He screeched in agony as his body twisted in an abnatural way. His spine cracked as he turned abrutly and involuntary. "Why?" He screamed as loud as he could. That was all he could do, scream, it would be a blessing if ThunderClan found him and put an end to his misery. ThunderClan. Even in his last moments the name set a foul taste in his mouth. Actually, that could have just been the blood growing in his throat...he fought to keep awake, he knew that if he slept he would never wake up again. He'd never be able to see his kits, his mate, he'd never see his clan...anyone...

But he couldn't fight death.

Closing his eyes he felt his sould lift, but not to Cloudclan, or Starclan, but instead an image of his past, it might have been his past but he knew it wasn't; for he had never lived this life, it was to crazy of a life.

_Bat smiled as he watched his kits become warriors, they were of his fifth, and last, liter, before his mate had died in a horrible fight with some of the 'Others'. He shook his thought from that and watched his three kits, Ember, Grey, and Feather, step up to their leader. Rain should have been with them, but the brave apprentice had been killed falling into a river. His poor brave Rain. Shaking his ever-unfocusing mind he looked at his three kits standing before Ice with proud looks in their eyes. Their pride however, was weak against the shinning in his. "Today we are honored to let our three apprentices, Grey, Ember, and Feather join or ranks." Ice began. _

_There was a meow of approval from the crowd and Bat beamed as Lizard whispered her congratulations to him. "Feather, Ember, and Grey, are you three willing to take on the responsibility to fight for your clan and for what you know is right? To care for your elders and your clan in general?" He asked as all leaders did. His icy blue gaze didn't waver from the apprentices as they nodded. _

_"Yes." Came the three replies simintanuously. _

_The blue-white-and silver leader stood up and walked to each apprentice, soon to be warrior, begining with Grey. "Grey, from this point on you shall be known as Grey-As-The-Dawn." He shouted. Clamly he licked the new warrior between the ears. "Ember, you will be known as Ember-From-The-Burning-Fire." He said. "Finally, Feather, you will be called Feather-From-Great-Bird."_

_Beautiful names for beautiful cats, if Bat could, he would have walked over to show his affection for his kits, but old age made him weak and it hurt him to walk even a small distance. Bat-On-Silent-Wings had become...not silent...with creaking bones and rubbed joints. "Great job Ember, Grey, and Feather!" He shouted over the crowd, and they turned their gazes to her happily. That was more than any of his other kits gave him. Green-Root-On-Tree, Silent-Echo-On-Water, Song-Bird-Flying-High, Melody-Of-A-Sparrow, and Horse-Running-Faster-Than-Lightning, barely sent him a passing glance these days, they all were depressed at the passing of their mother most likely. _

_Just then there was an ear piercing screech and Bat yelped as more cats not of their clan raced into the clan. He cried as claws sliced through his pelt, blinding him, he could feel Lizard's blood splatter on his fur and her sliced throat gargled. He felt his own throat sliced in turn; the pain was emense, it filled his body and his mind, all the pain! He was going to die! That was all that was going to happen! He was going to die!_

That was when Batshadow woke up, he shouldn't have woken up as he shouldn't be alive. Looking down in expectancy of what was going to be his broken and shattered body, he gasped. Not in pain, but in more of amazment. Where his bones should have been broken, he was normal, his body was as it should be and how it had been. "What...great Cloudclan...what happened?" He whispered.

That was when he saw a white cat bounding towards him, something glowing bright in her mouth. Snowfeather.


	24. Chapter 24

Joy was Snowfeather's reaction, she couldn't stop the feeling that started in her heart and the burning spread through her veins. Hope was not lost! Her paws flew over the sandy ground, "Batshadow, thank CloudClan, I thought for sure you..." She said, laughing with happiness. Batshadow stood up shakily, but the gladness in his eyes showed what he didn't say.

"Is that the Night-glow plant?" He asked, Snowfeather nodded and Batshadow howled in happiness. Snowfeather nodded, laughing, the joy threatened to break her heart. There was a chance, the clans would live, they would live, and they would take back the land around the lake that rightfully belonged to them. "Oh CloudClan, this is amazing!" He said, jumping up and down. His paws were sore, and his legs bruised from how they use to be broken, but nothing could stop him in his joy. Except one thing. "Where's the others?"

Snowfeather dropped the precious herbs from her mouth and looked around, "I lost them when we had to dive into the lake...but I think they're near by." She replied.

There was a swift nod from Batshadow, over the weeks, maybe month, that he had been with the six other cats, he had began to sense where they were. Then sometimes, when they had been seperated, he dreampt that he was looking through Starflower's eyes, seeing her running. He didn't know what he meant, but as his powers with sensing where others were grew, so did his fondness of everyone. Focusing on mental images of his traveling partners, no, friends, he felt as if he could feel what they felt, this time, it was the same feelings he had, joy, a great sensation of hope, something had happened. "Over there." He said, pointing with his tail. Snowfeather picked up the glowing bundle and nodded before bounding away in that direction, Batshadow followed at a close distance.

* * *

When Starflower first found Oakpaw, Falcon, Sunstar, Bunnytail, and Wildeyes (Wildeyes and Bunnytail were both carrying a large supply of Glow-plant) she thought she could never be happier. But when Batshadow and Snowfeather flew up at them from the bushes a few Deer-paces from the lake, she thought she could have died from a combination of shock and joy.

"Please, don't tell me it's all a dream, tell me you're all really here." Sunstar pleaded, bright amber eyes filled with emotion.

Bunnytail nodded happily, "Yes, we're all here! And we can go now, we have more than enough of herbs for all our clans, we'll be heros!" She said, bouncing up and down at the thought. Everyone shared her reactions, everyone but Falcon and Oakpaw. The two shared sorrowful glances full of knowledge, and Falcon nodded in sorrow. "What is it?" Bunnytail asked in earnest concern. Something was wrong.

Falcon looked up at them gravely, "All the clans are coming, apparently, we are seen as a threat...they're about 50 Deer-paces away, moving silently, and swiftly." There was a moment of horrible silence, brought up by fear and a horror so great that the earth seemed to stand still. "We should run." Falcon advised. There were nods of approval but Oakpaw stood up.

"No, I'm sick of running, and even if we did run we would have to fight them again some time. I don't know about you, but I want to finish this, running like a mouse away from anything new to them." He stated. There was what felt like an hours' silence, before looks were cast to each other, and a single unison nod of agreement were cast. Wildeyes, Snowfeather, and Bunnytail hid their precious treasure into large hole in a tree and put leaves over it. They came back and stood beside each other, a row of eight, all strong in their own different ways, all ready.

Sunstar gave a nervous laugh, "You know, we've come to far to get killed. So try not to die." There was a grim silence before the first wave of cats jumped out at the eight from the bushes in front of them.


End file.
